


Silmarillion Chapter Summaries

by Omicheese



Series: Silmarillion Study Guide [1]
Category: The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Fanwork Research & Reference Guides, Gen, all standard Silm warnings apply
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-07
Updated: 2016-03-07
Packaged: 2018-05-25 05:59:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 28
Words: 27,990
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6183391
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Omicheese/pseuds/Omicheese
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An oversimplified, shorthand version of every chapter in the published Silmarillion.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. AINULINDALË: Music of the Ainur

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote these while reading the Silmarillion for the first time, to help me remember all that happened and to use as a reference. I designed them such that someone unfamiliar with the Silmarillion would be able to read them and understand them.

Eru Iluvatar thought, and so were the **Ainur** (Valar and Maiar.) He gave them some musical themes, and they sang by themselves for a while, but the longer they sang the more they understood each other and sang together. Then he called them all together and gave them a huge amazing theme, and gave it to them all to sing and play variations on.

Melkor was a dick from the start, and he wanted to play his own music. This threw everybody off and made the music sound nasty, so Iluvatar threw in a new theme. Melkor rose to meet it and tried to be louder, so Iluvatar added yet a third theme, even better and shinier than all the others, played all by himself. This theme and Melkor’s music battled it out until Iluvatar made all the music stop.

He told them all that everything they’d done was his idea, even Melkor’s nonsense, and then showed the Ainur that what they’d been singing was blueprints for the world as he designed it. The first two themes were the form of the world, and the third theme was the people that would live on it (the **Children of Iluvatar** , elves and men.) The Ainur thought that this was _awesome_ , though Melkor was still a dick. (They say the music all still plays underwater in the sea, if you listen hard enough.) While the Ainur were admiring how awesome the plans for the world were, though, Iluvatar took it away before they could see the whole thing. Iluvatar does not believe in spoilers.

And Iluvatar made it so that the world existed, and everyone could go play in it, but it wasn’t finished yet. The Ainur who went to the world were called **Valar**. The Valar put the world together and shaped it like they thought it should be shaped, but Melkor kept coming around and effing everything up, so nothing ever ended up the way anyone expected or wanted it to. When they got it about done, the Valar took visible shape (based on what they’d seen of the Children of Iluvatar) and set up house. Melkor was pissed off and took physical shape himself, and then they all went to war.


	2. VALAQUENTA

This chapter is a description of all the Valar and some of the Maiar. All of this goes in character notes.


	3. QUENTA SILMARILLION: Beginning

Tulkas came to **Arda** (Middle Earth) specifically to kick Melkor’s ass, since that sounded fun, and he did so. Melkor ran away and sulked.

Yavanna planted a bunch of seeds and got her husband Aulë to make some lamps and light up the world so that they’d grow. He built two and put each at either end of the world (for the world was flat back then), and they made everything bright all the time. Plants grew nice and pretty, and the world was puddle-wonderful. This was the Spring of Arda.

Everyone was tired from kicking Melkor’s ass and making Arda nice, especially Aulë and Tulkas, who never got a break. So Manwë figured they should all party, and so they did. Tulkas married Nessa, and everyone was happy; but while everyone was distracted, Melkor snuck into Arda and started making it nasty. By the time they’d noticed, he’d broken the lamps and wrecked everything. They couldn’t catch him and punish him for it either.

With everything wrecked, the Valar moved out west to the continent of Valinor and set that up all nice and pretty, figuring that Middle Earth (the other main continent) might be screwed, but at least they should have a nice place to live. When they’d finished making it gorgeous, Yavanna sang a song (and Nienna cried), thus creating the **Two Trees**. One was gold and one silver, and they glowed, filling Valinor with light and all things good. They started counting time from here, as the Trees did not glow at the same time except for two short twilit-like between-periods each day.

Iluvatar came up with elves and men, and no one messed with the design at all. Elves were to come first, and were made to be beautiful, to make beautiful things, and to be happy. Elves and Ainur are in this way very similar. Men were made to be ambitious, to take charge of their own lives, and to go somewhere completely beyond the world after their time in it. Men will play a part in Iluvatar’s next project (after the end of the world), but no one knows if elves will.


	4. Aulë and Yavanna

Aulë secretly made dwarves because he was so keen on having people to love and to teach things to that he couldn’t wait until the Children of Iluvatar turned up. They look weird because he couldn’t quite remember what the Children would look like and so guessed. He designed them specifically to stand up to Melkor. Iluvatar found out what Aulë was up to, however. Aulë felt guilty for inventing people when he wasn’t supposed to and made to destroy the dwarves, but Iluvatar changed his mind, thought they were adorable, and adopted them. Iluvatar did insist, however, that they not steal the elves’ thunder and turn up first. He also made clear that dwarves and elves would not coexist well.

Popular belief among elves is that dwarves return to stone when they die, but dwarves believe that they go to chill in a special segregated ward of the Halls of Mandos, waiting until the end of time when the world is remade so that they can help Aulë remake it.

Yavanna was really annoyed that Aulë didn’t tell her he was working on dwarves, because they were likely to ignore her works as much as he did. She complained to Manwë about the potential of people in Arda to wreck her plants (though she didn’t specifically mention that Aulë had done anything.) Manwë didn’t seem to think plant-killing was a big deal, but said he’d do what he could anyway. The Ents were Yavanna’s idea, probably to get back at her husband for making those dwarves. They argue and it’s cute.


	5. Coming of the elves

Yavanna has a lot of political weight, and tried to persuade the Valar to kick Melkor out before the Elves could turn up, that they would never have to deal with him. Tulkas thought this was a great idea, but Manwë said no.

To make things better for the elves, like preparing the nursery before you bring the kid home, Varda made a bunch of new fancy shiny stars to shine on them. This was a very elaborate and difficult task. She wasn’t even quite done yet before the elves woke up. The first things they ever saw were the stars, and so Varda has ever since been their very favorite.

The elves woke up in the northeast somewhere and spent a lot of time by themselves until Oromë found them. Before that, though, every once in a while Melkor would steal some, and that’s [probably] where orcs come from.

The Valar finally made war on Melkor again, and Melkor blamed the elves for it even though they didn’t take part in it. Finally it came down to single combat, and Tulkas kicked Melkor’s ass and hog-tied him, taking him captive. (The Valar were not, however, able to destroy and empty Melkor’s fortress, Angband.) They locked him up in Mandos’s dungeon for three ages to see if he could learn not to be a dick.

Worried about the poor elves out in dark, scary Middle Earth, the Valar resolved to bring them all to Valinor (they brought a few as ambassadors to help convince the rest), but not all of them went. The leftovers are called **Avari** and don’t count as Eldar.

Elves came in three groups:  
-Group 1 is the **Vanyar** , led by their high king Ingwë, who never went back to Middle Earth.  
-Group 2 is the **Noldor** , led by Finwë, who love Aulë a lot.  
-Group 3 is the **Teleri** , led by Olwë and Elwë, who had the most people, tended to lag behind, stuck close to the water, and weren’t completely sold on the Valinor idea. Not all the Teleri went to Valinor, though everyone followed Oromë at least partway.

The elves were completely attention-deficit and just wanted to stay and look at everything, so unless Oromë was there to tell them to move on they stayed put. People ditched out along the way, most notably the **Nandor** (wood elves) who never crossed the Misty Mountains.


	6. Thingol and Melian

The Teleri were chilling in Beleriand when Elwë heard Melian singing. He fell mad in love with her on the spot, took her hand, and via magic essentially fell off the face of the planet and went into temporary stasis for several years. His brother Olwë took over the leadership job in his absence, taking the rest of the Teleri to Valinor. 

Elwë never made it to Valinor, and Melian stayed with him for the rest of his life. Elwë became king of the **Sindar** elves who never left Beleriand, and they called him Elu Thingol (King Greymantle).


	7. Eldamar and the Princes of the Eldalië

Technically, the easiest route to Valinor was in the north, where the landmasses are very close like Russia and Alaska, but the north sucked because Melkor had frozen it all and wrecked it, so Oromë took the elves to Beleriand in the southwest instead. The Vanyar and the Noldor got on an island and Ulmo tugged the island to Valinor, but the Teleri were busy looking for Elwë and didn’t get there in time. The Teleri clung to the shore and hung out with Ossë and Uinen. Eventually Ulmo came back for the Teleri, but Ossë convinced a bunch of elves called **Falathrim** to stay behind on the seaside and keep him company.

Elwë’s friends and followers also stayed behind to keep looking for him, even though they really had wanted to go to Valinor. They stayed inland. Eventually Elwë snapped out of his trance (and magically became tall and sexy) and brought his people to live in the woods.

The rest of the Teleri got on the island and Ulmo tugged them toward Valinor, but everyone complained so he stopped and anchored the island before they got there in the Bay of Eldamar/Elvenhome. They called the island Tol Eressëa and it sits within sight of Valinor without being actually in Valinor.

In Valinor, the Vanyar and Noldor elves got a place to live on the eastern edge, on a hill called Tuna in a city named Tirion, and Yavanna gave them a mini-White Tree (from which descended the Gondor one) for their own.

Aulë taught the Noldor everything he could think of, and they made tons of shiny things and gave them to all their friends. (They also named everything a million zillion times, so it’s their fault.)

Eventually the Teleri on Eressëa did end up wanting to go to Valinor, so Ossë taught them to build boats and gave them a ton of swans that pulled the boats there. They set up a harbor city called Alqualondë, built mostly of pearls and shaped like swans.

The Vanyar eventually ditched out to live full-time in the light up with Manwë, but the rest of the elves loved the stars too much. The Noldor travelled around some but always came back to Tirion. Fëanor and his family travelled everywhere.


	8. Fëanor and unchaining Melkor

Fëanor son of Finwë was born in Tirion, but the effort took everything out of his mother Miriel. Finwë was obviously very upset, both that he couldn’t have any more kids and that his wife was so worn out, so he took her to Lorien to heal her. Unfortunately, she lay down and died about as soon as she got there. Finwë was heartbroken, the only unhappy elf in Valinor, and put all his efforts into raising his kid.

Fëanor grew up awesome, and became the greatest crafting genius ever to grace the Noldor. He perfected the alphabet (“in his youth”), but specialized in making gems and crystals even shinier and more useful than the ones you can dig up. He married an awesome lady and had 7 awesome sons, but eventually she couldn’t put up with his shit anymore and left.

Finwë eventually fell in love and married again (he got a special dispensation from the Valar allowing him to do this), a nice supermodel-type blonde Vanya lady named Indis who gave him two more sons, though he never forgot Miriel and tended to favor his firstborn. Fëanor was _not_ cool with this, though, and basically never came home again. This is Fëanor’s start of darkness.

Meanwhile, Melkor came up for parole. He saw what the elves had been up to and was jealous as hell, but pretended he was sorry for all he’d done and wished to make amends. Amazingly, Manwë bought it and let him go. Ulmo and Tulkas thought this was a terrible idea, but they couldn’t do anything about it.

So Melkor pretended to love the elves and got in good with the Noldor, though the Vanyar never trusted him and he himself didn’t think the Teleri were worth notice. Fëanor above all people hated his guts, though, and never even talked to him, though Melkor liked to tell people that he’d taught Fëanor everything he knew. (This was slander—Fëanor never asked advice from literally anybody but his wife.)


	9. Silmarils

Fëanor was for some reason worried that the Two Trees would not last forever, so he made the **Silmarils**. No one but he knows what they’re made of, but they’re indestructible and house the blended light of the Trees. The Silmarils are thus The Most Fabulous Object[s] In The World. Varda blessed them so that no mortal or evil thing could touch them without burning and withering up, and Mandos proclaimed that the fate of everything was bound to them.

Obviously, Melkor wanted them something fierce. He started spreading nasty lies and ideas while making people think that they’d come up with this stuff on their own. He lured them eastward, claiming that the Valar had herded them to Valinor out of jealousy, and that the Valar were even now plotting to fill Middle Earth with their puppets Men to supplant the elves. (Actually, Men have _never_ listened to the Valar, even when it might have been a good idea. They’re like Fëanor that way.) The Noldor started getting antsy and ungrateful. Fëanor, meanwhile, was getting to be more and more of a dick, hoarding the Silmarils to himself and only sharing them with his father and sons.

On a roll, Melkor spread some more lies. He let word get to Fëanor that his younger brother Fingolfin was seeking to usurp him with the Valar’s approval, since they weren’t keen on the Silmarils being locked up in Tirion. On the other hand, he let word get to Fingolfin and Finarfin that Fëanor meant them ill. With everyone getting so upset, Melkor convinced the Noldor to start making weapons and stuff, and Fëanor made a bunch of extra-special weapons for his own kids.

Fëanor started talking openly about giving the Valar the finger and ditching back out to Middle Earth leading whichever Noldor would follow. Finwë was obviously worried and called a council, where Fingolfin butted in to complain about getting Fëanor off his high horse. Unfortunately, Fëanor happened to come in right then, and took that as confirmation that his brothers hated him.

The Valar aren’t that clever and didn’t see where the trouble had come from, so they thought Fëanor started it. They put him on trial, but eventually figured out that it was technically all Melkor’s fault. Still, they judged Fëanor to be a douche and banished him and his sons to 12 years in the north at Formenos. Finwë decided to go too, because he loved his son so much, and Fingolfin became king in Tirion.

Melkor hid himself as a cloud and dimmed the trees, freaking people out. Eventually he turned up in Formenos, pretending to make nice with Fëanor. Fëanor almost fell for it, but Melkor brought up the Silmarils and touched a nerve; and Fëanor could see how evil Melkor was and kicked him out. Melkor ran off back to Middle Earth.


	10. Darkening of Valinor

Melkor snuck around behind everybody’s back, and no one could find him because he’s a Vala and they can disappear. He went south to the nasty dark regions of Avathar (in southern Valinor) to go find Ungoliant. When he found her he took his favorite shape, a big intimidating man, and stayed that way for the rest of forever. Melkor promised Ungoliant that she could have delicious wonderful things, and that if she was still hungry when his evil plot was finished then he’d personally feed her whatever she wanted (“with both hands.”) So, Ungoliant wove magical extra-darkness to hide them, and they climbed north up the mountains into Valinor proper.

The Valar were busy partying, since it was harvest festival time. Manwë invited all the elves so that they could make nice with each other, though the Teleri didn’t come because they didn’t give a damn.

Manwë invited Fëanor personally and he did turn up, but he did not come in a partying mood, and he left all his family and his Silmarils at home, making him a real buzzkill. Still, he did at least in word make up with his brother Fingolfin, and they officially promised to get along from then on. They happened to say this at the time when both the Trees were shining at once.

Suddenly Melkor and Ungoliant crashed the party, turned everything dark, and Melkor hacked down the Trees and fed them to Ungoliant (spider-style, so she drank their insides.) Trees made Ungoliant thirsty, so she also drank all of the Wells of Varda, spewing black vapor as she did so and swelling to the size of god-knows-what. Even Melkor was scared.

Everything sucked to a point impossible to overstate, and while people were panicking Melkor left. Oromë and his hunters went looking for him, but anyone who touched Ungoliant’s cloud became blinded and lost, even Tulkas. By the time the cloud passed, Melkor was gone and there was no undoing it.


	11. The Flight of the Noldor

The Trees were thus destroyed, and Yavanna asked Fëanor for the Silmarils so that she could fix the Trees at least somewhat. Fëanor insisted that he could never make anything like the Silmarils again, and if they were broken then he’d break his heart and die. He insisted that he would never destroy them voluntarily, and if the Valar took them from him then he’d lump them all in with Melkor.

Mandos took account of this decision so that there was no going back on it. Nienna cried and cleaned up all of Ungoliant’s mess with her tears. But while that was going on, people came from the north and said that Melkor had gone to Formenos and killed Finwë. After doing that, Melkor stole all the Silmarils.

Fëanor _declared war_ , calling Melkor “Morgoth” (which is pejorative). Fëanor yelled at Manwë for taking him away from Formenos when he might have been able to save his dad, and ran off. And so everyone was scared and miserable, and they were worried that there would never be light in Valinor again.

Meanwhile, Morgoth (for now we will call him Morgoth) and Ungoliant ran north across the strait to northern Middle Earth. Morgoth was hoping to run away home to Angband, but Ungoliant called him out on fulfilling his promise before he got away. He was forced to give her the jewels he’d stolen from Formenos, one by one, as she ate them all, and she got bigger and nastier. When he tried to stop, she insisted that he had given her only the gems in his left hand, and he’d promised both. His right hand held the Silmarils in a crystal casket, but they were already starting to burn him, and he refused to open it. He told her to take his promise and stuff it, because he was never going to give anyone the Silmarils.

Ungoliant did not take that well, and tried to strangle Morgoth, and the region rang with his screams ever after. The Balrogs lurking in the depths of Angband heard him scream and came to his rescue, and Ungoliant ran away south, shacking up with creepy spider-things and eating them afterward. No one knows for certain what became of her, but it is rumored that she eventually devoured herself.

So Morgoth had the Silmarils, and partied in Angband with all the nasty things he could find, and made himself a huge iron crown, declaring himself King of the World. He set the Silmarils into the crown, but they permanently burned his hands black and he felt the pain for the rest of forever. He never took the crown off, even though it was dangerously heavy, and he almost never left home again.

The Valar sat at their council, and the Maiar and Vanya elves sat with them, but everyone else gathered in Tirion. Fëanor in his anger and grief called all the Noldor together (even though he was still supposed to be banished) and gave a huge speech, and declared himself King of all the Noldor after his father’s murder. Fëanor blamed the Valar for being at the very least useless and possibly treacherous, and called on the Noldor to join him in reclaiming Middle Earth. Most of what he said was lies that Morgoth had made up, but the Noldor believed it all by this point. And so he declared war on Morgoth and stirred the Noldor into waging it with him.

Then Fëanor and his sons all swore an **Oath** , a Huge Unbreakable Vow by All That Is Holy, swearing to “pursue with vengeance and hatred to the ends of the World” any person or thing, “good or evil,” that should ever “hold or take or keep a Silmaril from their possession.” This was a Big Deal. Fingolfin and his son Turgon thought that this was a bad idea and were about to fight Fëanor over it, while Finarfin and his son Orodreth tried to calm everybody down. (The rest of the kids chose sides, but few of these are important.) In the end most of the Noldor sided with Fëanor and struck out, and the Valar didn’t stop them.

Disagreement broke out almost immediately. Most people were loyal to Fingolfin instead of Fëanor and wanted to follow him instead. Fingolfin had promised Fëanor before Manwë that they’d get along, and his oldest son Fingon was all for it, so he led a huge host out of Valinor after Fëanor. Finarfin and his family went along as well, but they didn’t like it so much. Only a tenth of the Noldor stayed in Valinor.

Manwë eventually sent a messenger to tell Fëanor that he thought the whole business was a terrible idea and would never work, but that he wasn’t going to stop them. Fëanor and his people laughed it off and kept going.

Fëanor started to lead everybody north, the better to follow Morgoth and get to Middle Earth, but realized partway that he had no idea how boats worked. He therefore went to the Teleri in Alqualondë, but they thought the whole business was a terrible idea too. Their king Olwë had never had anything whatsoever to do with Morgoth, and trusted that Ulmo and the other Valar would eventually fix everything. Fëanor was pissed off and called the Teleri traitors and ungrateful, since the Noldor had built their houses. Olwë tried to talk him down, but refused to give him any of their ships, since these were precious to them.

Fëanor then tried to commandeer the ships anyway, but the Teleri fought them off. There was a big battle, but the Noldor eventually won, being better-armed and having backup, since Fingolfin’s group came in on the Noldor’s side. They afterward refer to this battle as the **Kinslaying**. Olwë tried to get Ossë to help, but Ossë’s hands were tied since he had to stick to shore. Uinen threw a fit, though, so a lot of the ships wrecked before they got anywhere and many Noldor drowned.

They were on their way up north toward the strait, and up on a mountain was a dark and terrible figure. (This might have been a messenger from Manwë, but it might also have been Mandos himself—it’s told differently.) This person said to them that life was going to suck for everybody who didn’t go home. This was afterward called the **Prophesy of the North** , and the **Doom of the Noldor** , and nobody understood what it meant until it was finally happening.

Specifically:  
-You will never be allowed back in Valinor  
-Fëanor and his family are never going to get those freaking Silmarils, and nothing will ever turn out well for them because of it  
-If you are killed (and you’re likely to be), your bodiless spirits will sit unhappily in Mandos for the rest of forever  
-If you aren’t killed, you’ll waste away and be miserable by the end of it

Fëanor accepted this judgement but insisted that even so it would be worth it, and people would never forget them. Finarfin, on the other hand, felt terrible and went home, and took a lot of people with him, though none of his children agreed to return. Fingolfin and his lot stayed on.

They all finally came in view of Middle Earth proper, way up north, and it was not inviting. There were mountains all around, and no clear way to get in except across water. People started muttering and blaming Fëanor, and people were worried about backstabbing. Fëanor and his sons plotted out how best to get over, and wound up taking the boats, sneaking off with their closest followers, and ditching Fingolfin’s lot on the other side of the strait. They were thus the first Noldor back in Middle Earth.

Maedhros, Fëanor’s oldest, asked how they were going to go back for everyone else, and could they please fetch Fingon first, but Fëanor essentially said ‘fuck them’ and burned the ships. Fingolfin and his lot were pissed, as they could see the boats burning on the other side of the strait, and became determined to get over there and give Fëanor what for. They ended up climbing over the mountains, which was the single greatest hardship the Noldor ever had to endure, and many if not most died in the undertaking. Those that survived, however, had it in for Fëanor and his kids.


	12. The Sindar (Meanwhile)

Elwë/Thingol and Melian lived in Beleriand and kept it nice, even though all the rest of Middle Earth had been put to sleep by Yavanna after the Spring. They had a gorgeous daughter named Luthien about an age into Morgoth’s jail sentence.

About an age after that, the Dwarves came over the Blue Mountains into Beleriand. The elves were startled, because they didn’t think there were any intelligent people besides them in Middle Earth. Very few elves ever learned Khuzdul (especially as the dwarves were unwilling to teach it), but the dwarves learned elvish easily enough. At first, Thingol welcomed them, and they got along wonderfully. They helped build a nice underground fortress for Thingol to live in (since Melian knew they’d need one soon enough,) and Thingol gave them pretty pearls and taught them all kinds of things. The fortress was called Menegroth, and it was ridiculously beautiful, and there was peace.

But as Morgoth’s sentence grew to a close, bad things started happening. The dwarves told Thingol that nasty monsters were coming out of the north, including Wargs and orcs. This didn’t bode well, so Thingol asked the dwarves to make weapons and teach the elves how to make their own. They all defended themselves against the intruders as necessary and there was peace again, but not for long and not without caution.

Meanwhile, the Nandor elves, who had ditched out ages ago, had no weapons and so were regularly attacked by the monsters. Their leader Denethor heard of King Thingol and, gathering as many of his people as he could, led them over into Beleriand, where Thingol welcomed them. They stayed in the east by the rivers in Ossiriand. (The Sindar elves came up with the Cirth runes around this time, and the dwarves kept them.) Every once in a while Oromë passed through, and things were still good.

But then Morgoth did his thing, and people started getting scared. They could hear Morgoth screaming, and Ungoliant came to Thingol’s realm on her way south, though Melian was able to keep her out. (She ended up settling a ways north in Ered Gorgoroth, making all the water in the mountains poisonous.) Angband and Morgoth were just a little too close.

Then Morgoth sent a huge army of orcs into Beleriand, killing off anyone they could reach, starting the First Battle of Beleriand. The elves won, routing the orcs northward, and the dwarves slaughtered all orcs on their way home, but the victory was at great cost. Denethor of the Nandor elves was killed, along with all his close family, and his people never took a king again. Most of them fell in with the Sindar under Thingol’s rule, though some, called **Laiquendi** or Green Elves, stayed hidden in Ossiriand and never made open war again. Meanwhile, the Falathrim elves led by Cirdan in West Beleriand were defeated, and pushed to the edge of the sea.

As a defensive measure, Thingol pulled as many of his people as he could back into the forest, and Melian set a protective barrier called the **Girdle of Melian** around it so that no one could get in without her or Thingol’s say-so unless they were more powerful than she. This kingdom was called Doriath.

From this point on, no one could foresee anything. At this time, Fëanor and his lot turned up in Middle Earth.


	13. The Sun and the Moon and the Hiding of Valinor

The Valar were actually very busy in council, even though they didn’t look it. They were particularly sad and upset that Melkor/Morgoth had pushed Fëanor into being such a dick, because Fëanor had had so much potential to do great things. He was the single best person ever to have existed, and having him be evil was such a waste. Manwë was very disheartened to hear that Fëanor had given his herald the finger, but he did like the idea that people would be singing tales of Fëanor and his family until the end of days. Mandos wasn’t impressed, though, and judged that he’d be getting Fëanor soon.

When they heard that the Noldor had gotten back to Middle Earth, the Valar got to work. Manwë asked Yavanna and Nienna to do whatever they could for the Trees, but they were unable to fix them. The silver Tree was able to produce just one last flower, and the gold Tree just one last fruit, and then they were dead for good. Yavanna gave these to Manwë, who hallowed them, and Aulë made them into the Sun and the Moon. They intended these to light up Middle Earth and make life difficult for Morgoth, both for the benefit of the elves there and because they knew Men were going to turn up soon (and Men are fragile.) The sun is meant to remind the elves that their days are numbered, but the moon “cherishes their memory.”

The Valar appointed Maiar to tend the sun and moon, being Arien and Tilion respectively. The moon was made and finished first, and thus the sleep of Yavanna started to end. Elves thought that this was awesome, but the creatures of Morgoth didn’t like it. Then the sun rose, and everything became bright, and Morgoth and his lot were forced to hide.

Varda set things up so that the sun and moon would not be in the sky at the same time, much like the Trees had lit up on a schedule; but Tilion in charge of pulling the moon was silly and liked to wander, and kept trying to catch up to Arien pulling the sun. Half the moon burned black when he once drew too close to her. People complained that they couldn’t sleep properly with all that light, so Varda organized it so that there would still be periods of time with only half-light and shadow. Tilion remained unreliable, though, so sometimes one can still see both the sun and moon in the sky at the same time. Time was thus reckoned by the passing of the sun from this time forth. Valinor remained brighter than Middle Earth, for the sun stayed there and waited before traveling under the earth to rise come morning.

Morgoth _hated_ the sun and the moon, and sent a bunch of shadows to attack Tilion and the moon, but Tilion won. Morgoth never had the guts to even try anything on Arien and the sun. So he and his ilk were forced to hide underground and stay indoors as often as possible, and he filled his lands with nasty clouds to block out the light.

The Valar were unsettled by the attack on Tilion, though, and resolved to make Valinor completely inaccessible from the outside, raising the mountains high and sheer and setting a watch on them ‘round the clock. They only left open the pass at the city of Tirion, for elves can’t live in complete isolation from the winds of Middle Earth, and it would be rude to cut off the Teleri from everyone else. Still, they built tall watchtowers to guard the place, and an army was encamped nearby, so that no one could get in.

They also set a bunch of islands running north to south, to get in the way of anyone who tried to sail west. Anyone who landed on these islands would sleep until the Change of the World. And so it was as foretold, that the Noldor would never be able to sail back to Valinor. Only one person ever successfully sailed to Valinor after that.


	14. Men

Assured that Valinor was out of reach, the Valar left Middle Earth to its own devices for a long time, leaving the elves to deal with Morgoth on their own, and the only one who involved himself at all was Ulmo.

Men woke up at the first rise of the Sun—and that first time, the sun rose in the West, and they have been westward-oriented ever since. The Valar never came to talk to the Men nor ask them to come to Valinor, and so Men have always been wary of them and feared them. Ulmo loves them anyway, and so they love the water, but they can’t understand what he’s saying. Men made friends with various elves who had never gone to Valinor, and studied and learned from them, but never came to know the Valar except by rumor.

Things started out well, but of course it’s all bound to go poorly, since Morgoth is inevitably involved and since Fëanor made his oath. This book is not going to talk much about Men’s business.

In those days, Men and elves were very similar physically, except that elves were wiser, more skilled, and way more beautiful—and the elves who had been to Valinor and seen the light of the Trees were as much better than the other elves in these respects as the Dark elves were better than Men. Only Doriath came close, and that was mostly Melian’s doing.

Elves are immortal, accumulate wisdom with compound interest, and never get sick, but their bodies are otherwise like those of Men, especially back in the day (“the fire of their spirit…consumes them from within in the courses of time.”) Men, on the other hand, die from nearly anything. The elves do not know what becomes of Men after they die—if they go to the Halls of Mandos, then they must have their own segregated ward. Only one Man has ever come back, and he never spoke to any mortal Man again. The Valar may have nothing to do with the fate of Men at all.

Eventually, due to Morgoth’s meddling, Elves and Men grew estranged, and the elves faded while the Men took over. Back in the day, though, elves and Men considered themselves kin, and worked together, and some Men became great even among elves. On the very rare occasion, also, Elves and Men married and had children.


	15. The Return of the Noldor

So Fëanor and his followers arrived in Middle Earth and made themselves extremely obvious. Morgoth probably wasn’t worried, though. Fëanor and his people traveled south and made camp just outside Beleriand when Morgoth’s forces struck suddenly, catching the Noldor off-guard. This was the Second Battle of Beleriand, or the Battle-Under-the-Stars, and it lasted ten days. The elves won very quickly, driving the orcs eastward and routing them, killing them all. Thinking he had the upper hand, Fëanor pressed on, charging Angband almost by himself. A bunch of Balrogs came out to help the remaining orcs, and they surrounded Fëanor. He fought long and valiantly, not even worrying about being outmatched, but Gothmog (Lord of the Balrogs) smote him to the ground. His sons came to rescue him, and the Balrogs retreated. Fëanor called upon his sons to keep their word and to avenge him, and then he died. His spirit was so fiery that it cremated his body on its way out. No one of his like has ever existed since nor ever shall exist again.

Around this time, some Sindar elves were in the area and found Fingolfin’s people who had climbed over the mountains, and they welcomed them, but communication was somewhat difficult, as the language had changed since the Noldor had gone to Valinor. The Sindar told the Noldor of Thingol’s realm in Doriath and of Cirdan’s group on the coast. The Sindar were very happy to see the Noldor, as they believed that the Noldor were sent from the west by the Valar to help.

Meanwhile, right as Fëanor died, Morgoth sent an embassy to Fëanor’s kids to admit defeat and offer terms of surrender, including the possibility of handing back a Silmaril. Maedhros the oldest took charge, and said he didn’t believe it, but that they ought to pretend that they did and go anyway. All parties were expecting an ambush, but unfortunately Morgoth’s lot were better prepared and brought more people (including Balrogs.) They killed all of Maedhros’s party except him, taking him captive and bringing him to Angband, holding him hostage and demanding that the Noldor back off and go home, or at least go south to Beleriand and leave Morgoth alone. Fëanor’s sons knew that Morgoth wouldn’t give Maedhros back no matter what, and could not give up their war due to oath anyway, so they were stuck at their camp in Hithlum. In the meantime Morgoth tortured Maedhros and strung him up on a cliff by his wrist.

Fingolfin’s arrival in Middle Earth was perfectly timed with the coming of the moon, and as he marched into Mithrim the sun rose, and he unfurled his banners and blew on his horn and marched his host on Angband. However, Fingolfin was a little smarter, and backed off before he got too far. He wanted to find the sons of Fëanor (to kick their asses) and to let his people gather their strength, so he made a camp by Lake Mithrim. Fëanor’s remaining people ran away, since they felt terrible over the whole burning the ships thing, even though most of them still liked Fingolfin’s group and wanted to welcome them.

Morgoth saw the situation as to his advantage, and he devised a bunch of nasty clouds to blot out the sun and poison the Mithrim area.

Fingolfin’s son Fingon decided that a house divided cannot stand, especially against so strong an enemy as Morgoth, and that he would have to fix that. Fingon and Maedhros had been best friends before, and even though he thought that Maedhros had forgotten all about him, Fingon resolved to go rescue him. He snuck up the mountain with his harp and sang a song, and Maedhros started singing along, and so Fingon was able to find him a la Marco Polo. Fingon couldn’t figure out how to get him down, though, so Maedhros asked Fingon to please just shoot him.

Fingon prayed to Manwë, and Manwë took pity and sent the King of the Eagles to carry Fingon up to the top of the mountain. Fingon couldn’t figure out how to get Maedhros down, and Maedhros again asked Fingon to just kill him already, but Fingon eventually cut Maedhros’s hand off. The King of the Eagles carried them all back to Mithrim.

Maedhros healed up quickly enough, though he never got that hand back, and learned to do everything with his left instead (and was actually better at it that way.) He begged forgiveness for the boat-burning and gave up any right to the Noldor kingship, letting Fingolfin take care of that, though his brothers did not necessarily approve. (Fëanor’s house was afterward referred to as The Dispossessed, both because lordship transferred to Fingolfin’s house and because they never got those damn Silmarils.) Thus the Noldor were all in one camp again, and they sent messengers around to see what was up.

Meanwhile, King Thingol was not entirely cool with all these Noldor princes turning up on his doorstep, and he didn’t let anybody into Doriath unless they were Finarfin’s children, since Finarfin is Thingol’s nephew-in-law. The first Noldor elf allowed into Doriath was thus Angrod, brother of Finrod and speaking for him. Angrod caught Thingol up on most everything, but neglected to mention exactly _why_ the Noldor had all been exiled, nor Fëanor’s oath or any of that Kinslaying business. Thingol told Angrod that he and his people were allowed to settle up in Hithlum where they were, and in general to the north and east, but to keep out of the rest of Beleriand since it was full of Sindar elves already. He also made it clear that nobody was allowed into Doriath without his direct invitation. 

When Angrod came back to report, the Noldor held council. No one really liked what Thingol had to say, though Maedhros was willing to laugh it off—it seemed to him that, so long as they stayed out of Doriath, the Noldor were probably free to go where they pleased. His dickish brother Caranthir, though, said rude things about King Thingol and yelled at Angrod to remember to put the Noldor first, even if their mother was Teleri. A lot of people were really offended, worrying that Fëanor’s kids would continue to make trouble, but Maedhros was able to do some quick damage control and smooth things over. Figuring it would be best for everybody, Maedhros took his brothers way out east to the hills by Himring, keeping watch, defending Beleriand from the northeast, and making sure that if trouble happened it would happen to Maedhros first. Maedhros personally stayed in touch with the rest of the Noldor and stayed friends with them, though he was still bound by his oath.

Caranthir and his people, being the isolationist sort, went further east to the edge of the Blue Mountains, a region called Thargelion. They ran into the dwarves, who had been keeping out of Beleriand since the first Battle. Neither group liked the other whatsoever, but they made an alliance anyway and learned from each other, becoming extremely skilled. Any trade coming from the Blue Mountains thus passed through Caranthir’s turf first, and he got very rich this way.

After twenty years, things were going reasonably well, so Fingolfin threw a party up north at Ivrin, and it was afterward remembered as very happy. Most people came, including Maedhros and Maglor, a bunch of Sindar, a bunch of Falathrim including Cirdan himself, and a bunch of Green elves, but only two people from Doriath, sent as messengers from Thingol.

Thirty years after that, Turgon and his buddy/cousin Finrod were out camping and exploring the Sirion River. While they were asleep, Ulmo snuck up the river and gave them dreams that they couldn’t quite remember afterward. Either way, afterward they were both under the impression that they needed to bunker down somewhere and have an escape plan ready for the day Morgoth inevitably attacked again and overthrew the northern watch.

A while later, Finrod and Galadriel were allowed to visit their Great-Uncle King Thingol in Doriath. Finrod was really impressed by Menegroth and he wanted to build something much like it, so he told Thingol about his dreams. Thingol recommended the caverns in the gorge of the River Narog, a little ways west of Doriath. Finrod set up shop there, building a huge underground fortress/castle called Nargothrond with the help of dwarves from the Blue Mountains (he paid these well, because apparently he was loaded.) The dwarves also made him a super fancy magic necklace called the Nauglamir as a gift. He got along generally well with the dwarves, and they called him Felagund for the rest of his life after this.

Galadriel met Celeborn and fell for him hard, so she stayed in Doriath. She spent a lot of time with Melian, who taught her a lot of important things.

Turgon, meanwhile, was homesick for Tirion in Valinor, and he wanted to set up a city like that. Ulmo personally came to him and showed him a spot up in the Encircling Mountains where there was a great spot to build. Turgon came home with plans for setting up a city there.

Morgoth’s spies told him that the Noldor weren’t planning for war, so he sent a sneak attack to test them. The elves were able to fend it off pretty easily, but it prompted the Noldor to stick closer together. As a single force, they were nigh invincible, though they could not take Angband even if they tried. Morgoth’s new policy, then, was to take live captives to Angband and torture or terrify them into telling him all he wanted or doing his bidding. This gave him a lot of vital intel, especially with regards to how poorly the Noldor got along. Almost a hundred years after the previous engagement, Morgoth singled in on Fingolfin as the weak link in the vigilant chain and sent in an army, but this was routed so easily that they don’t even consider it a real battle. Realizing how easily his ass was kicked, Morgoth didn’t try anything for the next hundred years. Then, though, there was Glaurung, first of the dragons. He was young and tiny by dragon standards, but he snuck out of Angband and raised hell up north for a while, until Fingon was able to drive him off with archers and send him home. Morgoth was mad that Glaurung had debuted too soon, but couldn’t do much about it, and hunkered down for some two hundred years. These two hundred years were very awesome for elves in general, and their culture and infrastructure grew strong.


	16. Beleriand and its Realms

This chapter is almost entirely geography. Anything relevant is in the character or geography notes.


	17. Noldor in Beleriand

Turgon had ideas to build his city up on the western edge of Dorthonion in the Encircling Mountains, but in the meantime he went back to his house in Nevrast and brooded on it for a while. After the most recent major battle, though, he got together some of his best and brightest, brought them out to the site, and set them to work building. It took 250 years to finish, and Turgon stayed for the most part in Nevrast until then. He named the city Gondolin.

When Turgon was ready to move in, Ulmo spoke to him again, promising that Gondolin would be perfectly protected and that no one would be able to get in if Turgon didn’t want them to, and that Gondolin would last longer against Morgoth than any other elven stronghold, but that Turgon had better not get too full of himself. Ulmo also reminded Turgon that the Doom of the Noldor applied to him too and spelled upcoming treason, but that someone would come from Nevrast to warn him before that happened. So that he could identify this person, Turgon should leave some armor and a sword at Nevrast for him.

Thus Turgon secretly evacuated all his people to Gondolin, which became ridiculously beautiful, and for a long time things were absolutely awesome.

Meanwhile, Galadriel was chilling in Doriath. She and Melian liked to talk and reminisce about Valinor, but Galadriel always stopped talking when they got to the part after the Trees went dark. Melian was suspicious, and asked just _why_ the Noldor were kicked out of Valinor. Galadriel told her that the Noldor had come of their own free will, sticking it to the Valar, because Morgoth had stolen those damn Silmarils. Still, she left out the bit about the Oath and the boat-burning and the Kinslaying, as her brother had done, and refused to give any more information on the subject. Melian told Thingol what Galadriel had said, especially about the Silmarils and what harm they brought. Thingol figured that even if they spelled trouble in general, at least the Noldor would make good allies against Morgoth, though Melian wasn’t sold on the idea.

Rumors started spreading among the Sindar (mostly from Morgoth, but they didn’t know it, and they had basis in truth anyway) about all the Noldor’s previous exploits, and these got to Thingol. He happened to have Finarfin’s kids all over visiting at the time, and he called them out on it all (especially the Kinslaying.) Finrod and his brothers could not defend themselves without blaming all the rest of the Noldor princes, and Finrod was unwilling to backbite, but Angrod remembered how big a dick Caranthir had been, and spilled all the beans. He insisted that he and his brothers shouldn’t be blamed for all of that stuff, since it was all Fëanor’s house’s fault.

Thingol was pissed, and kicked them all out, though he said that they could probably come back later since they were kin. He would also be reasonably fine with Fingolfin’s people, since they had all paid for the Kinslaying with their climbing over those mountains. However, he decreed that throughout Beleriand, no one would ever be allowed to speak Quenya ever again, and anyone who did would be labeled an enemy. Elves in Middle Earth spoke only Sindarin from then on.

Eventually Nargothrond was finished, and all of Finarfin’s kids were there for a party, and Galadriel asked Finrod why he hadn’t gotten married yet. He was sore on this subject, since the girl he had fancied was back in Valinor, but he had this weird moment of precognition and said that 1) eventually he was going to make some sort of oath that would get him killed and 2) nothing of his would ever last long enough for a son to inherit it anyway.


	18. Maeglin

Turgon’s sister Aredhel went to Gondolin with him, but she got tired of it and wanted to go wandering. Turgon kept telling her no, and eventually relented only so far as letting her go visit Fingon. He also sent an escort with her to make sure she went where she was supposed to go and to protect her. However, once out of Gondolin, she told her escort to stick it and take her to visit the sons of Fëanor instead, since she remembered being good friends with them.

They went south to Doriath, but weren’t allowed in, since anyone friendly with the sons of Fëanor has a black mark in Thingol’s book, and were told to go around. That road was supposedly very dangerous, though, as it ran past Ered Gorgoroth where Ungoliant lived and was poisonous. During that time, Aredhel got separated from her companions and lost. They went home without her, barely escaping with their lives. Everyone in Gondolin was worried and miserable at this news, but Aredhel kept going on her way, undaunted, and ended up hanging out with Celegorm’s people where she had intended to go.

After a long time without Celegorm turning up, however, she decided to go wandering again, and accidentally wound up in Nan Elmoth. Nan Elmoth was somewhat enchanted, and it was never daytime there. An elf named Eöl, the Dark Elf, lived in Nan Elmoth; and he saw Aredhel, thought her gorgeous, and essentially kidnapped her. Her people didn’t hear from her for ages afterward.

She wasn’t necessarily unhappy, as she enjoyed the starlight and got to wander almost as much as she wanted, so long as she didn’t go to visit any Noldor. They had a kid named Maeglin. Maeglin ended up looking more like the Noldor, but having his father’s temperament. He was also in good with the dwarves and traveled among them, but preferred to sit at home and listen to stories from his mother. He was particularly interested to hear that Turgon, lord of Gondolin, had no male heir and only a daughter.

Talking about her people to her son made Aredhel want to go home and visit, but these stories also started the first arguments between Eöl and Maeglin. Aredhel never told Maeglin where Gondolin was or how to get there, but he seriously wanted to know, and was determined to see the Noldor for himself someday. Eöl, on the other hand, hated Noldor as kinslayers and invaders and threatened to tie Maeglin up if he wouldn’t give up on his dream.

Eöl was asked one day to go visit the dwarves in Nogrod, so Maeglin and Aredhel were on their own. Maeglin decided that there was nothing left at home for him, as he had learned all he thought he was going to, and suggested that they run away together. They told Eöl’s servants that they were going to visit Celegorm and Curufin, and instead headed off for Gondolin.

Eöl, however, happened to come home early—only two days after they’d left. He was so upset that he even traveled by light of day to search for them, crossing into Curufin and Celegorm’s territory. Curufin’s riders caught him and brought him before their leader. Eöl played it as polite as possible, even though he hated Curufin’s guts, but Curufin told Eöl that his wife and kid weren’t there, and that he should get his ass out of the area as soon as possible. Eöl called Curufin a kinsman, since Eöl was married to Curufin’s cousin, but Curufin threatened that Eöl didn’t count as kin since he’d stolen Aredhel away, and told him to go home instead of going after them.

Maeglin and Aredhel got almost all the way back without being spotted, but eventually Eöl got within sight and was able to follow them into Gondolin.

In Gondolin, Turgon welcomed Aredhel and Maeglin, having missed his sister a lot and liking what he saw of his nephew. Maeglin loved what he saw of Gondolin and drank it all in, but the prettiest thing to him was his cousin Idril, Turgon’s daughter.

Eöl got to Gondolin and was taken in for questioning, shocking everybody when he claimed Aredhel was his wife and insisted to be taken before Turgon. Aredhel was unhappy that he’d followed them, but did acknowledge the relationship, and so he was brought to the hall. Turgon actually treated him with a lot of respect, all things considered, and welcomed Eöl with the condition that he never leave Gondolin. Eöl, however, told Turgon to stick it, as he didn’t recognize Noldor possession of Teleri lands. He said that Aredhel could stay in Gondolin if she wanted—though he didn’t expect her to _want_ to stay, as she’d gotten tired of it before—but that Turgon could not keep Maeglin away from him. Eöl thus ordered Maeglin to come home with him this instant, but Maeglin said nothing. Turgon insisted that the Noldor were the only thing standing between life as we know it and complete domination by Morgoth, and therefore his authority as King _did_ count; therefore, Eöl and Maeglin must obey Turgon’s orders either to remain in Gondolin or to die there.

Eöl pulled a spear out of nowhere and hurled it at his son, yelling that he would take the second choice and that Turgon could not take his son from him. Aredhel jumped in front of Maeglin to shield him, taking the spear in the shoulder, and Eöl was tied up and dragged off. Throughout all of this, Maeglin said nothing.

Aredhel and Idril tried to convince Turgon to show Eöl some mercy, but unfortunately no one had realized that the spear was poisoned—Aredhel thus got sick and died that very night. Turgon hardened his heart and ordered that Eöl be thrown off a cliff. Maeglin watched but still said nothing. Just before he fell, Eöl cursed Maeglin to fail at everything and die the way he did. The circumstances of Eöl’s death made Idril really uncomfortable, though, and she never completely trusted Maeglin after that.

Maeglin did really well in Gondolin. He taught the elves there all he knew about smithing and mining, and he made all kinds of wonderful arms and weapons. He was smart, loyal, and good in a scrap. Basically everyone loved him—but there was a problem. He was head-over-heels in love with Idril, and he was way too closely related to her for that to be considered acceptable, not to mention that she _really_ didn’t like him. This eventually _got_ to Maeglin and was his start of darkness.


	19. Coming of Men into the West

Finrod Felagund was out walking and happened to notice people, who were neither elves nor orcs. These were the first Men in Beleriand. They were singing songs and camping in the open air, because they thought that they weren’t in danger anymore. The longer Felagund looked at them, the more adorable he found them, and when they were asleep he snuck into their camp, picked up one of their harps, and started to sing for them. They woke up and thought that Felagund was the coolest thing _ever_ , and wondered if maybe he was even some kind of god, though he insisted he wasn’t.

The leader of the Men, Bëor, got to talking to Felagund and told him that his people didn’t remember much of their past, or at the very least didn’t like talking about it. Apparently Morgoth had sent spies among them from the very start and wanted to turn the elves and Men against each other, though this never quite worked out the way he wanted it. Anyway, Bëor told Felagund that there were two other groups of Men headed out to Beleriand—the Haladin, who didn’t speak a language anything like theirs, and another group who did, led by a guy named Marach.

The Green elves in Ossiriand heard about all these people coming and told Felagund in no uncertain terms to make them leave, so Felagund gathered up all of Bëor’s people and sent them further onward until they were just southeast of Doriath, calling that territory Estolad (Encampment) from then on. Felagund stuck around with the Men for about a year, but then went home, bringing Bëor back to Nargothrond with him like the puppy that followed him home. Bëor left his son in charge and never went back to Estolad in his lifetime.

Soon enough the other groups of Men started turning up. The Haladin came in near Ossiriand but weren’t welcome there, so they headed up north to Thargelion (Caranthir’s territory—he didn’t care.) Marach’s group of Men came about a year later, and had heard of Bëor’s people’s setup in Estolad and so settled there as well.

Felagund came to visit every once in a while, having such a fondness for Men as he did, and Fingolfin up north sent messengers to welcome the Men into Beleriand as well. Marach’s son Malach Aradan followed the messengers home to Hithlum and spent 14 years learning elvish before returning to Estolad. In general, elves and Men were getting along very well.

Men in general were antsy to move westward—they’d been oriented in that direction since the sun first rose when they woke up. A lot of them wanted to get out of Estolad. The Noldor princes all thought that this was a great idea, so they invited the Men to come live with them. Bëor’s people headed north to go live in Dorthonion with Felagund’s brothers Angrod and Aegnor. Malach Aradan’s people generally headed west to go live in Hithlum with Fingolfin.

Thingol, meanwhile, was pissed off, since nobody but Felagund asked him before letting all these filthy Men trample all over what he considered to be his Beleriand. He had a bad feeling about Men in general, and insisted that they were only allowed to live up north, and that the Noldor had to be responsible for all of their actions. He also very specifically said that no Man would _ever_ be allowed into Doriath, not even the house of Bëor, no matter how much Felagund liked them. Melian nodded and smiled, but told Galadriel later that there was indeed eventually going to be a Man in Doriath and there was nothing Thingol could do about it.

A lot of Men stayed in Estolad, though. Many of these didn’t trust elves (probably Morgoth’s fault), and this led to problems. Two particular rabble-rousers were the cause of this. Bereg of the house of Bëor and Amlach descendant of Marach complained that they had all come west because they believed they’d reach the Valar that way, and yet now after coming west they find out that all the Valar are over the sea except for Morgoth, who had already proven himself to be a dick. They felt like this was a cheap deal, so they held a council. Elf-friendly people insisted that the only way to keep Morgoth at bay was to live with and help out the elves. Bereg, meanwhile, insisted that it was the elves’ problem and that Men shouldn’t bother. Then a guy who looked like Amlach said that there was no such thing as Valar, that the elves were lying greedy bitches, and that Men should leave grand politics well enough alone. People were starting to agree with this when the real Amlach came back asking what he’d missed. The elf-friends insisted that this was blatant proof that Morgoth was real, Amlach sucked it up and went to go live with the elves, and a lot of other men said ‘screw it’ and left Beleriand for good.

Meanwhile, the Haladin were in Thargelion having no problems. Morgoth, obviously, could not have this, so he sent a bunch of orcs into Thargelion to attack them. The Haladin didn’t have collective government, so they were slow to band together and pick a leader, but eventually a dude named Haldad got all the strong people together, evacuated the women and children, and endured a siege until they’d run out of food. Haldad had twin kids—a son named Haldar and a daughter named Haleth. Haldad and Haldar both got killed, so Haleth personally held her people together for a week before Caranthir got his act together and cleared the orcs out.

Caranthir was seriously impressed by Haleth’s balls of steel, offered recompense for her father and brother, and suggested that she take her people up north to go chill with the elves there. She and her people, however, were “unwilling to be guided or ruled,” and decided to head out west to Estolad instead. Haleth’s nephew Haldan was named her heir, and the people as a whole were referred to as the “People of Haleth” from then on. Soon enough she got sick of Estolad as well, and brought whomever would come with her out further west between Ered Gorgoroth and Doriath. This was a really terrible road, and they were only able to survive because Haleth was such a badass. Once they’d reached the farther west, many broke off to do their own thing, though most stuck to Haleth and followed her to the Forest of Brethil. Brethil technically belonged to Doriath, though it wasn’t within the Girdle of Melian, but Felagund intervened in Haleth’s favor. Thingol agreed that the Men could live there so long as they kept the orcs out, to which Haleth said, ‘If Thingol doesn’t think we hate orcs after they killed my family, he’s crazy’ (paraphrasing.) She lived out there and led her people until her death, and they built a big awesome burial mound for her.

So the elves and Men lived together comfortably for a while, and a lot of the men learned Sindarin because it made things easier. Eventually, however, the elf-kings realized that the Men would probably be better off if they had their own governments to handle their own affairs, so long as these governments remained allied with the elves. They thus set aside land for the Men to live on. Hador Lorindol, descendent of Malach, was a good friend of Fingolfin’s, so Fingolfin gave him the region of Dor-lomin (just south of Hithlum) to rule and live in. He became the most important of the kings of Men, and the speech of his house eventually became Numenorean. In Dorthonion they gave the people of Bëor the region of Ladros to live in, giving it to Bëor’s descendent Boromir.

Things were looking really awesome. Humans lived for a really long time back then, possibly as a side effect of living in Beleriand. Bëor was the first to die of sheer old age at 390. This dying was very depressing and disturbing to the elves, since they didn’t know where Men go after death (and never do learn what becomes of them.) Still, death and depression aside, Men and elves were getting along great, and Men learned everything from the elves that they could until they were better off than any Men east of the mountains.


	20. The Ruin of Beleriand and the Fall of Fingolfin

Fingolfin had no idea what he was getting into and decided that his people were probably strong enough to attack Angband, figuring it was better to act sooner than later so that Morgoth couldn’t keep building strength. Everyone else thought that this was a terrible idea, figuring on things continuing in the future so manageably as they had been lately, so they talked him out of it for the time being.

By about 450 years after Fingolfin’s people turned up in Middle Earth, however, Morgoth had basically had it up to here with the Noldor. He had been working very hard, building his army all through this time, and if he had waited a little longer he probably would have been able to wipe all the elves off the face of Arda, but luckily for us he didn’t have the patience for that.

It was winter, on a night with no moon, and there weren’t too many people on guard on the plains of Ard-galen. Suddenly, Morgoth poured out a river of molten fire that burnt the entire plains to a crisp and spewed out a ton of poisonous gas and smoke. Most anyone who was out there died instantly. This was the beginning of **Dagor Bragollach** , the Battle of Sudden Flame and the fourth Battle of Beleriand. Glaurung the golden headed the attack, followed by a bunch of Balrogs and more orcs than anyone had ever even imagined. They attacked everywhere all at once, and killed anyone they got their hands on. From then on the war never stopped, though for the official records the Battle is considered to have ended in the spring.

Most Sindar gave up and fled to Doriath, which was still safe. Others ran to the coasts, to Nargothrond, to Ossiriand, or left Beleriand altogether. Angrod and Aegnor were both killed, as was lord Bregolas of the house of Bëor. Bregolas’s brother Barahir lived, however, and rescued Finrod Felagund, who was defending the Pass of Sirion. In return for this, Felagund swore an oath of friendship and aid to Barahir and his house, and gave Barahir his ring.

Hithlum managed to weather the onslaught, but Fingolfin and Fingon lost contact with the rest of the family.

Things went badly with the sons of Fëanor also. Celegorm and Curufin were defeated and had to seek refuge in Nargothrond. Maedhros was amazing and rained death on anything that crossed his path, “for since his torment upon Thangorodrim his spirit burned like a white fire within, and he was as one that returns from the dead.” Unfortunately, Maglor couldn’t keep the pass closed permanently, since Glaurung came through that way, and had to move in with Maedhros on Himring. Thargelion was completely ravaged as well, and Caranthir had to take his people far south past Ramdal to Amon Ereb with Amrod and Amras. They were at least able to keep the orcs out of Ossiriand and the farther south.

Fingolfin got partial news of what was going on and arrived at the conclusion that the Noldor were screwed and all his family dead, and in grief and anger he rode straight out to Angband and challenged Morgoth to a personal duel.

Morgoth accepted the challenge, not wanting to look bad in front of his captains, though not without trepidation. This was the last time he ever willingly walked out his own door. Morgoth wielded his huge-ass hammer, smashing the ground and opening fiery cracks in the earth, but Fingolfin dodged like it was whack-a-mole. Fingolfin was able to wound Morgoth seven times, but eventually wore out. Morgoth bashed him with his shield three times, and each time he was able to get back up again, but the ground around him had all shattered and he slipped and fell. Morgoth stepped on his neck and just about crushed it, but with his last efforts Fingolfin was able to slice off Morgoth’s foot. Fingolfin thus died.

Morgoth would have ripped Fingolfin’s body up and fed it to the wolves, but Thorondor, lord of the eagles, came in, scratched Morgoth’s face up, grabbed Fingolfin’s body, and took it to Gondolin, where Turgon buried him and raised a cairn over him.

Fingon thus was forced to assume the crown and take responsibility for all the remaining Noldor, and he sent his young son Gil-Galad out to the Havens on the coast so that he might be safer.

Barahir refused to flee from Dorthonion, though Morgoth’s forces killed almost everyone in it and poisoned the land so terribly that even orcs refused to go in. It got so bad that Barahir’s wife Emeldir the Manhearted (a stone-cold badass of the Eowyn variety) was forced to abandon the fight, collect the remaining women and children, arm them, and lead them out of the mountains to Brethil. A few people left from there to Dor-lomin to go live with the house of Hador. But none of these people ever saw their menfolk again, because all of them were killed except for twelve. These were Barahir, his son Beren, his nephews Baragund and Belegund, and eight servants/followers. This band could not escape and refused to give up, and had to live in the wilds like cavemen as the forces of evil hunted them.

For two years after the Dagor Bragollach, the Noldor were still able to hold the Pass of Sirion (with Ulmo’s help from the river), but in time Sauron was able to take the fortress at Minas Tirith on the island of Tol Sirion, forcing Orodreth to move in with his brother in Nargothrond. With the pass in Morgoth’s hands, he could send bands of orcs down the river, taking Sindar and Noldor captives and spreading lies. The captives he made slaves, forcing them to work for him, and sometimes he’d let these go home—just to use them as sleeper agents and bring ruin from within. It got to a point where no one wanted to trust anybody.

Morgoth also tried to get the men to abandon the elves and give up, but few if any listened. This only made Morgoth hate them more. Around this time, the “swarthy men” ( **Easterlings** ) started turning up in Beleriand from the east. Some of these were apparently Morgoth’s spies, but not all of them. Maedhros knew that the Noldor and Edain alone were screwed against Morgoth and made alliance with their main chieftains, Bor and Ulfang. Morgoth approved. Bor’s sons followed Maedhros and Maglor and turned out to be decent people; Ulfang’s sons followed Caranthir and turned out to be backstabbing bastards.

No one really liked the Easterlings, but no one was in much contact with each other anyway. The people of Bëor were essentially all dead; the people of Hador were stuck defending Hithlum; and the People of Haleth found themselves fighting orcs coming down the Sirion. Their lord sent to Thingol, who sent his captain of the guard Beleg Strongbow with a company of Sindar to back them up, and they were able to defend Brethil for some time afterward, keeping the orcs from moving further south.

Around this time Hurin and Huor, sons of the king in Dor-lomin, were hanging out in Brethil with the people of Haleth, being raised by their maternal uncle. When the battle came to them, they all fought, even Huor who was only 13, and they would all have gotten killed had Ulmo not intervened. They escaped, but got completely lost. Luckily, Thorondor saw them and sent some eagles to take them to Gondolin.

Turgon was cool with this, since Ulmo had given him some warning that they were coming, and they lived with him for about a year. Turgon actually ended up loving them very much and wanted them to stay just because, but they wanted to return to their own people and help them. They said that they really didn’t know how to find Gondolin anyway, since they were air-dropped in, and Turgon agreed that if the eagles would take them back out again then they’d be free to go. Still, since Maeglin is a backbiting bitch, they took an oath of silence about the whole business anyway. They got home and refused to tell anybody where they’d been, but people had some guesses and Morgoth heard these.

Turgon in time refused to let any of his people go out to war anymore, since he judged that Gondolin was still safe for now as long as no one knew about it, but he could read the signs and figured the Noldor were getting to be pretty screwed. He sent some people in secret out in boats to sail to Valinor and ask for the Valar’s help in dealing with the whole Morgoth issue. Unfortunately, Valinor doesn’t let anyone in anymore—a couple boats were able to turn back, but most were lost at sea. Gondolin’s days are numbered.

Morgoth heard a bunch of rumors about everything and was really curious about what Felagund and Turgon were up to. He had heard of Nargothrond but knew nothing about it, and had never even heard of Gondolin. He sent in more spies, but pulled the orc armies back to build up his strength again. There was something like peace for seven years, but then he attacked again. The king in Dor-lomin was killed, making Hurin king, and despite being very young Hurin was able to hold his ground and kick the orcs out. The forces at Hithlum were outnumbered, but Cirdan from the Havens sent in marines and turned the tides.

In the meantime, the last few men in Dorthonion were finally killed. Only Beren, son of Barahir, made it out alive, and came to Doriath.


	21. Beren and Luthien

Barahir and his band of survivor men were still hiding out, and Morgoth sent Sauron to go kill them all personally.

There was one guy in the group who happened to miss his wife very terribly, and still held hope that she might be alive. Sauron jumped on this. He used magic to make the guy think he’d seen her, then captured him to try to make him tell where the rest were. At first the guy wouldn’t talk, but Sauron promised that he would see his wife again, so he sold them out. Then Sauron laughed, said that the man’s wife was already dead, and killed him.

Beren son of Barahir happened to be out on a secret mission at this time. He had a dream in which the guy’s ghost came to him, told him that he’d sold them out, and said that he had to go warn his father right away, but by the time Beren got there, everyone was dead. Beren went on a one-man rampage of revenge and killed all the orcs immediately responsible, and made himself such a nuisance to the dark side that the price on his head was as high as the price on Fingon’s. He couldn’t keep it up forever, however, and was forced to make his way south through Ered Gorgoroth into Doriath. This journey was so horrible that he never spoke of it again.

Somehow, magically, Beren was able to enter Doriath even without the king’s permission, and there he saw Thingol’s daughter Luthien dancing. He fell madly in love with her on the spot, and after a few days of running into each other and losing each other again, she fell madly in love with him too.

Her father heard about this and was _not happy_. Luthien made him swear that he would not imprison or kill Beren before even saying anything, but Thingol did demand that Beren be brought before the throne to explain himself. Luthien came along and tried to do all the talking, but Thingol wasn’t having it. Thingol loved his daughter way too much to let some dirty mortal Man have her, and so he told Beren that if he wanted to marry Luthien, he had to go out to Angband and steal a Silmaril off Morgoth’s head first. Thingol had no idea what he was getting into, but figured that Beren would die in the attempt. Beren said it was a small price to pay and headed out. Once he was gone, Melian told Thingol that it was a terrible idea: since if Beren failed, Luthien would probably break her heart and die; and if he succeeded, then Thingol would have _a Silmaril in Doriath_ and no way was he prepared for that kind of responsibility. Thingol didn’t listen, though.

Beren went from Doriath to Nargothrond and was brought before King Finrod Felagund. Felagund was torn—he knew that whatever happened, he was probably going to die soon. He told Beren that the Silmarils were a lot bigger than either Beren or Thingol thought, because the Sons of Fëanor would always come after them. At the moment, Celegorm and Curufin were living in Nargothrond, and though they had been perfectly decent people lately, they were probably not going to like Beren’s quest very much. Still, Felagund was bound by oath to Barahir, and he was determined to live up to that.

So Finrod Felagund came before his people and announced that he was going to help Beren son of Barahir like he’d promised. As soon as he finished speaking, however, Celegorm stood up and announced that he and his brothers would personally shank anyone who dared take a Silmaril, and Curufin backed him up, “more softly but with no less power, conjuring in the minds of the Elves a vision of war and the ruin of Nargothrond. So great a fear did he set in their hearts that never after until the time of Turin would any Elf of that realm go into open battle; but with stealth and ambush, with wizardry and venomed dart, they pursued all strangers, forgetting the bonds of kinship. Thus they fell from the valour and freedom of the Elves of old, and their land was darkened.” Only ten people stood by Felagund after that. Accepting defeat and preferring that the sons of Fëanor not take over, Felagund gave the crown to his younger brother Orodreth and set out with Beren and the ten nice people.

Felagund used magic to disguise everybody as orcs, and they traveled up the Pass of Sirion, but unfortunately Sauron is too smart for that. Felagund and Sauron had a singing magic battle, but Sauron’s magic was stronger and Felagund fell. Sauron pulled away everyone’s disguises, threw them in a dungeon, and threatened to kill them all cruelly unless they would talk. But even though every once in a while someone got eaten by a werewolf, no one said anything.

Luthien had a bad feeling about Beren, and went to talk to her mother, who told her that Beren was locked up in a dungeon somewhere and could never get out on his own. Luthien then planned to go rescue him herself, but she happened to tell the minstrel Daeron (who fancied her), who ratted her out to Thingol. Thingol essentially locked her in a treehouse. She used magic to get herself out—she enchanted her hair to grow super-long, made an invisibility cloak out of it, put an extra spell on that to make people sleep, wove a rope ladder from whatever was left over, used the sleep spell to knock out the guards, climbed down, and ran away.

Celegorm and Curufin happened to be out and about hunting wolves. Celegorm happened to be best friends with a Maia in the shape of an enormous dog named Huan, who was given to him by Oromë and who followed him to Arda. Following the Noldor to Arda doomed Huan to their fate, but it was prophesized that only the greatest wolf ever to ever exist could kill him. Huan noticed Luthien and brought her to Celegorm. Luthien at first thought that this was awesome, since Celegorm was a prince and an enemy of Morgoth, so she took off her invisibility cloak. Celegorm was completely blown over by how gorgeous she was and told her that he would help her if she would come to Nargothrond with him.

Once there, though, they took her cloak away, locked her up, and plotted to force Thingol to let Celegorm marry Luthien instead. They figured Beren and Felagund were screwed anyway, and that no one could (or should be allowed to) try to take any of the Silmarils “until they had all the might of the Elf-kingdoms under their hands.” Marrying Luthien would thus be a political power move that would edge them closer to their goal. Orodreth wasn’t doing very well as steward of Nargothrond anyway, since essentially everyone there was listening to Celegorm and Curufin by this point.

Huan, however, had developed a soft spot for Luthien, and would go sit in front of her door while she talked to him. Huan understood speech and was capable of talking, but was only allowed to speak properly 3 times before dying. Either way, he figured out a plan to steal her cloak back and sneak her out of Nargothrond. In doing this, he spoke once and for the first time. She rode on his back like he was a horse and ran off to help Beren.

By this point, the only two left alive were Felagund and Beren, because Sauron wanted to save Felagund for last. However, when a werewolf finally came to kill Beren, Felagund wrestled it and “slew it with his hands and teeth.” The effort killed him, though, and that was how he redeemed his oath.

That was when Luthien managed to arrive. She sang a song that shook the place, and Sauron realized who she was. He figured if he brought her in, he would definitely win some points with Morgoth, so he sent wolves after her one by one, but Huan killed them all. Finally, Sauron sent in the head werewolf and the sire of them all, by the name of Draugluin. Draugluin and Huan fought for a long time, but eventually Draugluin escaped to die at Sauron’s feet. His last words were, “Huan is here!”

Sauron knew of Huan and knew that only the greatest wolf could kill him, so he changed himself into the most awesome wolf he could think of and came after Huan. He was so freaky that Huan backed off, and Sauron lunged at Luthien, but she waved her sleep-hair-cloak at him and made him woozy. Then Huan took him out, grabbing Sauron’s throat in his teeth. Sauron turned into any shape he could think of to get out of Huan’s grip, but it didn’t work. He was about to ditch his body altogether, but Luthien basically told him that without a body he was screwed, and Morgoth would never forgive him, so he’d better just surrender to her. This he did, and as soon as they let him go he turned into a vampire and ran away as fast as his little bat wings could take him to Dorthonion and hid there for a long time.

Luthien broke the spell that held the fortress together and it all came down like Jericho. A lot of the captives came out, but Beren didn’t—he stayed in to mourn for Felagund, and Luthien and Huan had to come find him. They buried Felagund there, and that made the land clean and pure thereafter, though Finrod’s spirit went back to Valinor and he got to officially live there after that.

So Beren was free and he and Luthien got to hang out; and Huan went back to Celegorm, though they weren’t quite as cool with each other after that. Meanwhile, Nargothrond was in chaos. Some elves who had been trapped by Sauron had made it home by then, and everyone heard what had happened to Felagund. Celegorm and Curufin did not seem very trustworthy after it came out that a girl just did what they’d never even tried to do, and the people of Nargothrond turned to Orodreth and crowned him king. Orodreth refused to kill Celegorm and Curufin, though, as they were his cousins, and instead just kicked them out. None even of their own people went with them, including Curufin’s kid Celebrimbor, as everyone had finally arrived at the conclusion that these guys were supremely bad news. Huan went with them, though. They headed northeast, towards Maedhros.

Beren and Luthien were chilling in the Forest of Brethil, discussing what their next plans should be and whether they really ought to go steal that Silmaril, when lo and behold, Celegorm and Curufin turned up. Celegorm saw Beren, got pissed, and tried to run him over, while Curufin nabbed Luthien. Beren jumped at Curufin and knocked him off his horse by the throat. He was about to throttle Curufin when Celegorm came up behind him with a spear—but Huan decided enough was enough and snarled at Celegorm’s horse, forcing it to turn around. Celegorm, of course, was pissed. Luthien said that Beren wasn’t allowed to kill Curufin, but they did steal all his best stuff, especially the awesome knife Angrist, which was made by Telchar of Nogrod and which would cut through iron like it was wood, though it didn’t need a sheath. Beren appropriated Curufin’s horse for Luthien and told Curufin to walk home.

Celegorm pulled Curufin up onto his horse with him and made to leave, but Curufin was still pissed off, so he grabbed Celegorm’s bow and shot back at them. Huan grabbed the arrow out of the air, but Curufin shot another one that flew at Luthien. Beren jumped in front of it and got impaled in the chest, though Luthien was able to heal it with a magic herb. (Celegorm and Curufin got chased away like weenies by Huan and high-tailed it out of there as fast as they could manage.)

Beren and Luthien made it back to Doriath, and Beren figured that Luthien would be safe there, so he trusted her to Huan and snuck out on his own toward Angband. When he got far enough, he sang a good-bye song, because he figured he’d never see her again, but she heard him. She and Huan ran after him, stopping on the way to kill a vampire and steal her clothes. With Huan disguised as the werewolf Draugluin (whom he’d killed earlier) and Luthien disguised as the vampire, they caught up to Beren, and nobody messed with them along the way.

Beren didn’t like that they’d caught up to him, and insisted that he’d rather Thingol had just killed him in the first place than bring Luthien to Angband, but Huan told him that, by loving him, she was bound to die at some point anyway—either they could run away and be exiles together, Luthien would die alone, or they could just go through with the original plan together. (This brings Huan’s talking count to twice.) Huan unfortunately wasn’t allowed to go any closer to Angband, so they disguised Beren as the werewolf Draugluin instead and headed onward.

They got to the gates of Angband, but they hadn’t been told that there would be a gatekeeper there: Carcharoth, hand-raised by Morgoth into the biggest, nastiest werewolf that ever existed, put there specifically in case Huan should ever turn up. Carcharoth was already on the alert, since Angband had long since heard that Draugluin had been killed, so when they came to the gate he stopped them and tried to search them. Luthien magically put him sleep, allowing them to keep going.

Once inside, they snuck around until they made their way into Morgoth’s throne room. Beren, still disguised as a wolf, managed to sneak under Morgoth’s chair, but Morgoth was able to see through to Luthien. She stayed cool as a cucumber and offered to sing for him, pretending she was a minstrel. She was so ridiculously pretty that Morgoth said fine, and started to fantasize nasty thoughts about her. While he was thus distracted, she sang a song that put everybody in Angband to sleep, including Morgoth himself. Conked out on the floor, his crown rolled off his head. She woke up Beren, who took out the magic knife and cut one of the Silmarils out of the crown. It didn’t burn him. Things were going great, so he made to cut out the rest of the Silmarils while he was at it, but the knife snapped and a bit poked Morgoth on the cheek. He twitched in his sleep, which was enough to scare Beren and Luthien the hell out of there.

Everything was fine on the way out, but unfortunately Carcharoth at the Gate had woken up. Luthien had run out of magic and couldn’t stop him, so Beren rubbed the Silmaril in Carcharoth’s face, saying that it would hurt him. Carcharoth didn’t care, so he bit Beren’s hand off with the Silmaril in it. The Silmaril burned his insides and the drove him mad—he ran off and became the worst terror of the North, killing anything he crossed, with the Silmaril making him even stronger. So Carcharoth was gone, but his bite was venomous. Luthien sucked the poison out of Beren’s arm stump and tried to heal him, but all of Angband had woken up from Carcharoth’s howling.

Everything would have been in vain, but luckily Huan had warned the eagles. Thorondor and two friends came to fetch Luthien and Beren and carried them away back to Doriath. Huan found them, and together he and Luthien tended Beren, who looked about on death’s door. Beren survived only because he wanted to see Luthien again so much. Things seemed pretty cool, and Luthien was willing to elope with him, but Beren’s culture said that it was absolutely improper except as last resort to ignore a girl’s father’s wishes, not to mention that he didn’t want to be the jerk who stole her away. So he persuaded her to go to Menegroth with him.

Doriath was not doing well. Everyone thought Luthien was gone for good, and because of that the minstrel Daeron left and was never seen again. Thingol asked Melian for help and advice, but she refused to tell him anything. Meanwhile, news came that Luthien was in Nargothrond getting ready to marry Celegorm, and that both Beren and Felagund were dead. Thingol was pissed off and ready to war on Nargothrond, but thankfully somebody told him that Luthien wasn’t in Nargothrond either, and that Celegorm and Curufin had been kicked out. This information, however, made the situation tricky. Thingol didn’t have enough strength to fight the Sons of Fëanor, so instead he sent messengers to ask for their help in finding Luthien.

Unfortunately, Thingol’s messengers on their way north had the luck to run into Carcharoth. Not even the Girdle of Melian could stop him, and he charged into Doriath. Only Thingol’s chief captain Mablung managed to escape and tell Thingol about it.

Right then, Beren and Luthien turned up. Thingol still didn’t like Beren all that much, and his patience was kind of tried at the moment anyway, and so he asked about how that Silmaril quest went. Beren said, “Even now a Silmaril is in my hand.” Thingol said, “Show it to me!” Beren held up his empty left hand, then held up the stump of his right arm. Thingol thought that this was pretty darn funny, figured Beren couldn’t be that bad a guy, and realized that he was never going to be able to keep them apart anyway. Thus Thingol finally got over himself and let the two get married.

Unfortunately, now it was apparent that Carcharoth had a Silmaril in his gut, making him even more dangerous than they’d thought. The beast drew ever nearer to Menegroth, and so Thingol organized a party to go out and kill it—himself, Huan, Mablung, Beleg the marchwarden, and Beren. (They were actually able to ensure that Luthien stayed home this time, though she didn’t like it.) They found him and surrounded him. Carcharoth hid in some bushes, and for a long time neither side moved. Eventually Huan got impatient and went in after him, and that’s when Carcharoth leapt out at Thingol. Beren tried to stick Carcharoth with a spear, but the wolf just knocked him out of the way and chewed on him. At that moment, Huan attacked. The fight was divine-level epic, and the very sound of it broke the rocks and choked up the river. Thingol, however, was more worried about Beren, who once again was nearly dying. Huan won the fight and killed Carcharoth, but died of the venom. The third and last thing he ever said was goodbye to Beren.

Mablung cut Carcharoth’s belly and got the Silmaril out, and it shone brilliantly all over everything. Afraid, Mablung handed it right over to Beren, who offered it to Thingol and spoke no more. They brought Beren and Huan’s bodies back to Menegroth. Beren wasn’t quite dead yet, and before he finally died, Luthien told him to wait for her.

And Beren waited, refusing to leave the Halls of Mandos for the Outer Sea (where the spirits of Men are bound to go, never to return.) Luthien in her misery dropped dead and headed right over. She was more beautiful and sad than all the elves already there, and went straight up to Mandos himself and sang to him. Her song was the finest ever sung, and the most sorrowful ever heard, and she moved Mandos to pity—the only time he has ever been so moved. He summoned Beren from the human wing of the Halls so that they could be together, but it was not within his power to undo the deaths of Men. Therefore, he went to Manwë to ask what could be done about it. Manwë “sought council in his inmost thought, where the will of Iluvatar was revealed.”

Luthien was given two options. In recognition of her sorrow and badassitude, she could leave the Halls of Mandos and go to Valinor, where she could live forever and forget all her grief, with the caveat that Beren would never be allowed in; or she and Beren could return to Middle Earth, both of them mortal, and eventually die for good. She picked the latter, and is thus the only Elf ever to truly die.


	22. The Fifth Battle: Nirnaeth Arnoediad

Luthien and Beren returned to Doriath to say goodbye to her parents, then headed out eastward to Ossiriand, where they lived out the rest of their lives. They had one child, a son named Dior who was named as Thingol’s heir.

Around this time, Maedhros realized that if Luthien could steal a Silmaril, Morgoth must not be so invincible as previously thought. However, he knew that there would be no way of winning unless everyone stuck together in a single alliance. Thus, he began the councils called the **Union of Maedhros**.

Unfortunately, not everyone wanted to be part of this. Orodreth would have nothing of it, still stinging from Celegorm and Curufin’s behavior, and most of the rest of Nargothrond followed his lead, with only a very small party willing to join (led by Gwindor, whose brother Gelmir had been lost in Dagor Bragollach.) These fought under Fingon’s banner. Doriath was similarly reticent. The Sons of Fëanor had already made themselves unwelcome when they sent word to Thingol that he needed to give them the Silmaril he possessed. Melian told Thingol that he’d be better off handing it over, but Thingol was still too sore about how much his daughter had gone through for it and refused. He had already become very attached to the gem, a desire that grew stronger the longer he looked at it (this is what Silmarils do.) Thingol essentially told the Sons of Fëanor where they could stick it. Maedhros took this in stride, busy as he was with the councils and trying to make nice, but Celegorm and Curufin swore openly to kill Thingol and his people if they won the war and Thingol still wouldn’t surrender the Silmaril. Thingol, in response, fortified his borders against them and refused to let any of his people go help them. Only Mablung and Beleg joined the Union of Maedhros, unwilling to miss out on such an epic opportunity. Thingol allowed this only if they fought for Fingon and not for any Sons of Fëanor.

Maedhros did, however, make allies of the Dwarves, and he pulled together all of his brothers and anyone willing to follow them, as well as the Easterlings led by Bor and Ulfang. He also had Fingon on his side, with all of his associated allies from Hithlum. They also tried to get the People of Haleth and Turgon in Gondolin on board, though no one expected Turgon to actually turn up.

Unfortunately, Maedhros was acting too soon, before everything could be properly settled. Morgoth had heard of their plans and was able to plan ahead, and sent more of his spies and double agents among them.

The plan was that they would assault Angband from the east and west at the same time. Maedhros would lead his armies out over the plains of Ard-galen, which would hopefully draw Morgoth’s armies toward him. Once Angband was emptied, Fingon would lead an attack through the passes of Hithlum, trapping Morgoth’s forces between them.

D-Day came, and everyone was set to go. Over to the east, the standard of the Sons of Fëanor was flying; and in the west, Fingon had gotten together everybody he knew, including the elves from the Havens, Gwindor and his friends from Nargothrond, all the men of Dor-lomin led by Hurin and Huor, and all of the People of Haleth. Fingon could see (given just how far elves can see) the dark clouds over Thangorodrim and knew that Morgoth would come out and fight, but could not see Maedhros’s forces charging out to meet him—for, unbeknownst to Fingon, Maedhros held back, believing a lie from Uldor the accursed, son of Ulfang, that Morgoth was going to attack first.

Suddenly, from the south, Turgon appeared entirely unexpectedly, bringing a host with him. Everyone was so happy, and they really thought they were going to win.

Things were going as Morgoth had thought they would. He sent an army into the plains, though not his full strength, and drew very close before anyone could see them due to clever use of camouflage uniforms. Many of the Noldor wanted to head out to the plains and strike Morgoth’s army there, but Hurin told them to wait, figuring correctly that it was a trap.

Morgoth’s captain, however, was under orders to draw Fingon out as quickly as possible by whatever means necessary. He pulled right up to the Pass of Sirion, and sent forward some guys to parley. These had with them Gelmir brother of Gwindor, whom they’d taken captive and blinded in Dagor Bragollach. They paraded him around, bragging that they had plenty of captives still at home, and that they’d finish them all off after the battle when they returned. Then they hacked off Gelmir’s hands, feet, then head right in front of their eyes.

Gwindor of Nargothrond saw this and completely lost it. He and his band charged, killing the heralds and driving out toward the main army. Figuring there was no point in holding back now, Fingon strapped on his helmet, sounded his trumpets, and led his army after them. They were so fast and deadly that Morgoth almost wasn’t prepared for it—Fingon’s forces completely demolished Morgoth’s host before he could send reinforcements, bringing Fingon before the very walls of Angband. Gwindor couldn’t be stopped and ran right through the gates up the stairs, though his group was then trapped there and slaughtered to a man, with only Gwindor taken alive. Morgoth then released his main force and drove Fingon back with great losses.

Thus began **Nirnaeth Arnoediad** , the battle of Unnumbered Tears. Fingon was forced to retreat across the plains. Most of the Men of Haleth including their leader fell. The orcs had the Hithlum armies surrounded. Seeing his brother in such dire straits, Turgon charged in to save him, cutting through the orc armies. Then, finally, they heard Maedhros’s trumpets—he was finally on his way. The orcs were starting to scatter, and if everyone had proved faithful the elves might have won. Even as Maedhros charged, though, Morgoth turned out his last strength and emptied Angband, loosing wolves, warg-riders, Balrogs, dragons, and Glaurung the Golden himself. Glaurung torched everything and everyone in his path, driving Maedhros and Fingon’s armies apart.

“Yet neither by wolf, nor by Balrog, nor by Dragon, would Morgoth have achieved his end, but for the treachery of Men.” A lot of the Easterlings, seeing how things were going, simply gave up and ran home, but the sons of Ulfang suddenly changed sides in the middle of the fight, going over to Morgoth and attacking Maedhros’s company from the rear, nearly reaching the standard. Maglor was able to kill Uldor the accursed, and the sons of Bor killed and were killed by Ulfast and Ulworth, but Uldor had been the signal for a hidden army of evil Men, who swarmed in. Maedhros’s forces, under assault from three sides, broke and scattered. None of the Sons of Fëanor were killed, though all were wounded—they managed to stick together, gathering with some of the remaining Noldor and Dwarves and retreating far away to Mount Dolmed near Belegost.

The Dwarves of Belegost were the last of the eastern contingent to retreat, and so earned great renown. They were naturally more fireproof than either Elves or Men, and so fought chiefly against the dragons. They encircled Glaurung and chopped at him with axes—and their greatest warrior and lord, Azaghal, drove a knife so hard into Glaurung’s belly that the dragon was forced to flee, Angband’s beasts following him away. Azaghal died in the effort, and the dwarves carried him away, singing a funeral dirge and ignoring the rest of the battle. No one dared go after them.

On the west side, however, things were very grim. Fingon and Turgon’s forces were three times over outnumbered. Gothmog himself, Lord of the Balrogs and high captain of Angband, entered the fight and separated Turgon and Fingon. Gothmog attacked Fingon, killing all his guard. Another Balrog came up from behind Fingon, grabbing him with a whip of fire, and Gothmog took that chance to ax Fingon in the head and kill him. They then beat his body and stained his banner in his blood.

Hurin, Huor, and Turgon were still managing to hold the Pass of Sirion. Hurin then told Turgon to get back to Gondolin, since he was the Noldor’s last hope. Turgon worried that Gondolin couldn’t stay hidden much longer, but Huor told him that so long as it only lasted a little while longer, there would yet be hope. Maeglin happened to be there and hear this, but he said nothing. So Turgon was able to retreat with whoever he could collect of Fingon’s troops, with his captains Ecthelion and Glorfindel defending their flanks and the Men of Dor-lomin holding the rear and providing cover.

The Men of the House of Hador were there and then slaughtered until only Hurin stood alone. After great effort, orcs overtook him, and Gothmog bound him and dragged him back to Angband alive.

In essentially all ways, Morgoth won. He had successfully stirred up fear and hatred amongst the Children of Iluvatar, with Elves and Men never fully trusting each other afterward. Fingon’s realm was obliterated; and the Sons of Fëanor were defeated and essentially powerless, stuck lingering in the forests of Ossiriand. Some of the Haladin survived, but the Men of the House of Hador were utterly destroyed—Morgoth ended up giving the region of Hithlum, now mostly empty, to the Easterlings who had supported him, though these had wanted to settle in the more comfortable lands of Beleriand proper. Any elves who had been left in Hithlum were taken away to slave in Morgoth’s mines, except for the very few who managed to escape and hide in the mountains. Orcs and wolves were now free to run wherever they wished throughout Beleriand. Doriath and Nargothrond remained closed, but Morgoth didn’t consider these important yet. Many elves sought refuge in the Havens, and Cirdan’s marines were able to harry Morgoth’s forces along the coastline for a while, but eventually Morgoth had enough and burned the Havens to the ground. Most of the Falathrim elves were either killed or enslaved, except for the few who managed to escape on boats. These, including Cirdan himself and Fingon’s son Gil-Galad, were able to set up a refuge on the Isle of Balar far to the south for anyone who could make it out via the Sirion River.

Turgon heard about this and got Cirdan’s assistance in sending ships west for help—none of these sailors made it back except one, whose ship foundered and who was rescued by Ulmo and dumped in Nevrast on the northwest coast (where Turgon used to live before founding Gondolin. This will matter later.)

Morgoth, meanwhile, was worrying about Turgon. He had wanted to kill Turgon more than he had wanted to kill anyone else, both because he hated the entire House of Fingolfin anyway, and because even back in Valinor Turgon had scared Morgoth personally. So Morgoth brought out Hurin and tried to question him about Gondolin, but Hurin told him to shove it. Morgoth took this personally and cursed Hurin, him and his wife and children, such that terrible things would happen to them wherever they went; and he bound Hurin to a stone chair and cursed him again to sit there and watch as the curse on his line destroyed the lives of the people he loved, unable to look away or move until it ran its course.


	23. Turin Turambar

Huor and his wife had only been together for two months before he died. She didn’t take the news well—she got lost in the wild, gave her son Tuor to the elves in Mithrim, laid down on a hill and died.

Hurin’s wife, Morwen, was of much stronger stuff. Her son Turin was eight years old and she was pregnant again when Nirnaeth Arnoediad happened. She was far too intimidating for the Easterlings, who had taken over Hithlum, to harass her, though they threw rumors around that she was a witch. Still, she was very worried about Turin, and sent him to Doriath with the request that Thingol look after him. In the meantime, she gave birth to her daughter Nienor.

Thingol had grown fond of Men after Beren had won him over, and he had long since thought well of Hurin anyway, so he fostered Turin personally. After about nine years, though, the messengers from the north stopped coming. Scared for his mother and sister, Turin took up arms and headed out to patrol the marches with Beleg. He didn’t return to Menegroth for the next three years.

When Turin did eventually come back to Menegroth, he was decidedly on the grungy side. An elf in Thingol’s counsel named Saeros, who had never liked Turin, picked on him, saying, “If the Men of Hithlum are so wild and fell, of what sort are the women of that land? Do they run like deer clad only in their hair?” Turin angrily threw a cup at his head.

The next day, Saeros waited on Turin’s way out of Menegroth to pick on him again, but Turin beat him up, stole his clothes, and made him run through the woods naked. Saeros was so scared he didn’t look where he was going, fell off a cliff into a stream, and broke his back on a rock. Mablung happened to be passing by and saw this, and told Turin to go back to Menegroth and get judgement from Thingol. Turin, however, panicked and fled Doriath, joining a band of outlaws and becoming their leader.

When Thingol heard about this, he pardoned Turin anyway, knowing that it was all an accident, and worried profusely about where Turin had gone. Beleg promised to go find him and went out looking all across Beleriand for a year. Beleg eventually found Turin (though before Turin got there, his outlaw buddies had caught Beleg and were torturing him) and told him that Thingol had pardoned him. He also told him that the orcs were getting worse and that the two of them were needed at home. Turin, however, refused to return. He asked Beleg to stay with him out there, but Beleg refused. Beleg therefore had to go home empty-handed. Thingol wasn’t happy about it, but Beleg offered to keep protecting Turin anyway. In return for this service, Thingol gave Beleg the sword Anglachel (which had been forged by Eöl and which Melian warned was full of malice) and a pack of lembas bread.

Turin took his bandits out westward and happened upon three dwarves, who ran away. He and his group caught one, but the other two ran off. One guy shot an arrow after them, but didn’t expect it to hit anything. The dwarf they caught was named Mim, and he pleaded for his life. Turin took pity on him and spared him, and asked Mim to take them to his house. It turned out, however, that the two dwarves who had fled were Mim’s sons, and the arrow killed one of them. Turin felt terrible and promised to make up for it, and they all stayed at Mim’s house on Amon Rudh for a long time.

In the winter of that year, Beleg turned up. Turin still refused to come back to Doriath, so this time Beleg just stuck around even though he didn’t think it was a good idea. The outlaws loved Beleg because he was badass, but Mim hated his guts and withdrew, only talking to his son. Turin didn’t notice.

In spring, Morgoth sent another assault, but Turin and Beleg personally kept it from reaching too far south. They became extremely famous, and brought hope to Morgoth’s enemies, but Morgoth recognized Turin’s helmet and knew he’d found Hurin’s son. He surrounded Amon Rudh with his spies.

Near the end of that year, Mim and his son were out looking for roots when they were captured by orcs. Mim once again pleaded for his life and offered to lead them to his house, but made them promise not to kill Turin. The orcs killed Turin’s men while they slept and captured Turin, taking him away. Beleg wasn’t dead yet, and Mim tried to kill him personally, but failed and ran off.

Beleg figured out that Turin must have been taken to Angband, and so went off to look for him, running after the orcs without sleep. Passing through the cursed forests in Dorthonion, however, he happened to run into a sleeping elf, who turned out to be Gwindor, escaped from slavery up north. Beleg and Gwindor found Turin, who was unconscious, and freed him—but, while cutting Turin free, Beleg accidentally nicked him with his sword, waking Turin up. Turin saw a guy standing over him with a sword, freaked out, yanked the sword away, and killed him, all before realizing that that was his best friend. Turin never fully emotionally recovered. Turin and Gwindor buried Beleg, and Gwindor navigated their way back to his home in Nargothrond.

Turin entered Nargothrond via a pseudonym (of which he may even have more than Aragorn, though I previously did not think this possible), and there they reforged Anglachel to be even sharper and more dangerous. They also gave him some dwarfish armor and a mask, which he wore into battle. Turin was quite hot stuff, and the princess Finduilas fell in love with him, even though she used to be Gwindor’s girlfriend. Realizing where this was going, Gwindor wanted to make sure that Finduilas knew what she was getting into and revealed Turin’s real name and heritage, thus also revealing how cursed Turin’s family was supposed to be. Turin was pissed off that he was outed, but Orodreth had thought well of Hurin and so held Turin in very high esteem. Turin became very popular and powerful, and he led the people of Nargothrond out of hiding and into conventional warfare against the orcs, building a bridge across the river to make things easier. Gwindor kept insisting that this was all a terrible idea, but no one listened to him anymore. Thus Morgoth finally figured out where Nargothrond was, though he still didn’t know Turin was there (everyone called him the Black Sword instead of his name.)

Somewhere around this time, emboldened by stories of the Black Sword of Nargothrond, Morwen and her daughter Nienor were able to escape from Hithlum into Doriath, but Turin was already long gone.

495 years after the rise of the moon, some elves turned up in Nargothrond with very bad news: Ulmo had come to Cirdan to warn him that bad things were coming, and Nargothrond needed to swallow its pride and seal itself off again if it wanted to stay safe. Unfortunately no one listened.

Shortly after this, Morgoth sent a force (led by Glaurung the Golden) into the Forest of Brethil, killing the Lord of the People of Haleth and sacking the forest, laying waste to the vale of Sirion and marching from there straight into Nargothrond. Nargothrond had grown strong, but Morgoth was far better prepared—not to mention that no one besides Turin, who was wearing dwarf armor, could even get anywhere _near_ Glaurung. Both Orodreth and Gwindor died there. Gwindor’s last words were to Turin, telling him that he loved him very much but regretted having rescued him, and that if Turin wanted to avoid his Doom, he needed to go save Finduilas right away.

Turin ran into Nargothrond and cut down everyone in his path, trying to save the women who had been taken captive, but Glaurung got in his way and started talking to him. Turin made the mistake of looking into his eyes, allowing Glaurung to put a spell on him. Glaurung taunted Turin and made him think that his mother and sister were in trouble up in Hithlum. Glaurung then pretended to be merciful and allow Turin to hurry up to Dor-lomin to rescue his family, and Turin took him up on it, running off and leaving Finduilas behind. Having done what was asked of him, Glaurung torched what he liked, drove out all the orcs, broke the bridge, and made a nest for himself out of what was left of Finrod Felagund’s treasure.

Turin high-tailed it to Dor-lomin as fast as he could, but found out his family was already gone, finally allowing him to shake off Glaurung’s magic. Pissed off at everything, he killed a bunch of Easterlings, but this made him no friends and he had to run away. He tried to look for Finduilas, hoping to make things right, and fell in with some of what was left of the People of Haleth, who told him that she and all the other prisoners had been slaughtered. Turin fell into a coma-like depression, and the people of Haleth brought him back to their leader Brandir the Lame. They all knew who Turin was because of the sword, but Brandir took pity on him and healed him up. Turin hoped to put his past behind him and stay in Brethil, so he picked a new name, put aside the embarrassingly recognizable sword in favor of a bow and spear, and set himself to killing any orc that came nearby.

In the meantime, refugees from Nargothrond made their way to Doriath and told Thingol what had happened. No one knew exactly what had happened to the Black Sword, but they did confirm that he had been Turin all along. When Morwen his mother heard this, she panicked and rode out toward Nargothrond to go find out what had happened to him. Thingol sent Mablung with a party to go after her, and Nienor snuck along with these. They caught up to Morwen, but she refused to go back, so—making sure that Morwen and Nienor stayed put with some guards—they went as sneakily as possible to go check on Nargothrond. Glaurung saw them coming and torched the river, making it rise up in steam and blinding Mablung and his men. The guards tried to get Morwen and Nienor away, but all the horses were blinded and confused by the smog. Morwen got lost, and no one from Doriath ever heard from her again. Nienor, on the other hand, ran into Glaurung and unfortunately made eye contact. After a short battle of wills, Glaurung triumphed and wiped her memory so clean that she couldn’t even remember how to talk, hear, see, or move. Mablung found her and tried to lead her back to Doriath by hand, but the group was attacked by some orcs just outside Doriath. At that moment, Nienor got her hearing and sight back, freaked out, and ran. Mablung’s party was able to kill all the orcs, but Nienor outran them and they lost her.

Nienor kept running until all her clothes had torn off and she had worn herself completely out. She could still remember absolutely nothing. Eventually she wandered into the Forest of Brethil, where Turin ran across her in the middle of a storm and rescued her. Something about Turin was comforting, even though she couldn’t remember him, and she stuck close to him. She didn’t know her name, so Turin gave her the name “Niniel.” They brought her back to where the people of Haleth were based, and there she healed up and learned to talk again, but she still couldn’t remember anything that had happened before Turin found her. Their lord Brandir the Lame fell in love with her, but she was long gone on Turin.

There was peace in Brethil for the time, and Turin came to fancy Niniel, and asked her to marry him, though that first time she said no. Brandir was worried and tried to talk her out of it for her own sake (even though he loved her too, this wasn’t actually out of jealousy), having a really bad feeling about it. He told her who Turin was, and “though she knew not the name a shadow fell upon her mind.” Nevertheless, when Turin asked her again, claiming that if she didn’t marry him, then he’d go back out to war against orcs in the wild, she said yes, so they married. Nevertheless, within the year, the orcs were back and Turin fought them anyway. He didn’t go far, but word came to Glaurung that the Black Sword was in Brethil.

In the next spring, Niniel got pregnant, and right around then rumor reached Brethil that Glaurung wasn’t in Nargothrond anymore. Turin was effectively in charge of Brethil at this point, since he was much more charismatic than Brandir. It became clear that Glaurung was going to attack them in Brethil, so Turin rode out to attack him first. Niniel freaked out and ran after them. Brandir’s people had all abandoned him, but he still loved Niniel, so he put on a sword and followed as best he could.

Turin eventually made it to Glaurung, sneaking up from under him by climbing up a cliff, and stabbed him in the gut, driving the sword in up to the hilt. Turin lost hold of it and came up to retrieve it, but Glaurung wasn’t quite dead yet—he glared at Turin hard enough to knock him out.

Brandir caught up to Niniel and tried to persuade her to flee with him, but Niniel refused and insisted on finding Turin. She and Brandir found him and tried to heal him up, thinking him dead. With Glaurung’s dying effort, he said, “Hail, Nienor, daughter of Hurin. We meet again ere the end. I give thee joy that thou hast found thy brother at last. And now thou shalt know him: a stabber in the dark, treacherous to foes, faithless to friends, and a curse unto his kin, Turin son of Hurin! But the worst of all his deed thou shalt feel in thyself.” Niniel/Nienor suddenly remembered everything, freaked out, and threw herself off the cliff into the river before Brandir could stop her.

Brandir made it back to Brethil and told them everything that had happened, and that Turin was dead, and that that was a good thing, but everyone thought he was crazy. Turin, however, turned up right after that, asking after Niniel. Brandir told him that Niniel was both dead and his sister, but Turin refused to believe it, got angry, killed Brandir, and ran off. He was just panicking about what to do next when he happened to run into Mablung, who told him that his mother and sister were missing, and in particular that his sister had some sort of weird amnesia. Turin realized that Brandir had been telling the truth, freaked out, ran off, pulled out the sword Anglachel, and fell on it, killing himself.


	24. The Ruin of Doriath

Morgoth wasn’t done yet. Everything he knew about what had happened, Hurin also knew, though Morgoth made sure to make Melian and Thingol look as bad as possible. Then, a year after Turin was dead and 28 years after imprisoning him, Morgoth pretended to take pity and let Hurin go, hoping that he’d wreak even more havoc. Morgoth even sent an honor guard to take Hurin home to Hithlum, which ensured that none of his own people would want to go near him.

Hurin left Hithlum miserable, hoping he might find Gondolin, but he did not know the way, since he’d been airlifted by eagles last time. Unfortunately, Morgoth sent spies to tail Hurin wherever he went, and he accidentally let slip what region Gondolin was in. Morgoth couldn’t get there yet, but at least he had a clue.

In his wanderings, Hurin eventually found his wife Morwen, who was mourning at the grave of their children. She died that night. This was the last straw. Hurin became angry, and wanted vengeance on anyone and everyone involved.

Hurin made his way into Nargothrond. Mim had gone there after Glaurung left, as he and his people had once lived there, and sat alone in the ruins with the treasure lost in nostalgia. Hurin found Mim there and killed him. Even with all the riches there, though, he left with only one thing.

Hurin then made his way to Doriath. Thingol let him in and was quite nice to him, but Hurin wasn’t having any of it. From under his cloak he pulled out the Nauglamir necklace, which originally was a dwarvish gift to Finrod Felagund, and he threw it at Thingol’s feet, yelling derisively, “Receive thou thy fee for thy fair keeping of my children and wife!” To Thingol’s credit, he handled this well, and took the abuse silently. Melian waited until Hurin was done talking to explain that they’d actually taken the best care possible of Hurin’s wife and kids, and that Morgoth was just up to his usual nastiness. Hurin realized that he’d been wrong and how easily Morgoth had played him, apologized, offered the Nauglamir more nicely, left, and threw himself into the sea having nothing more to live for.

Thingol spent a lot of time just staring at the necklace, and got it into his head to get the Silmaril set into it. He had gotten very obsessed with the Silmaril, to the point that he wasn’t comfortable leaving it in the treasury and instead carried it around with him everywhere. So he called in some dwarf smiths, who still traveled to and from Doriath for work, and commissioned them to remake the Nauglamir for him. Unfortunately, this was a Silmaril, and upon looking at it the dwarves wanted instead to keep it. Still, they tried to put that out of mind and took the job anyway, while Thingol sat in the smithies and watched them work. Once they’d finished, Thingol made to take the necklace, but the dwarves raised a point about why Thingol should be allowed to have the Nauglamir in the first place—after all, dwarves had made it as a gift to Finrod, and Thingol only had it because Hurin stole it from Nargothrond. Thingol was able to see through this logic and knew that they really just wanted to keep the Silmaril for themselves, got very angry and very haughty, and basically told them, ‘How dare you talk to me this way? I’m much older and more important than you! Fuck you, go home, I’m not paying you!’ (paraphrasing) The dwarves did not take this well, obviously, and killed Thingol right there and ran away. Elves ran after them, killed most of them, and brought the Nauglamir back to Melian, but two of the dwarves made it home to Nogrod, claiming that “the Dwarves were slain in Doriath by command of the Elvenking, who thus would cheat them out of their reward.” Nogrod geared up for war against Doriath, though the dwarves of Belegost stayed out.

Things were not good in Doriath. Melian essentially gave up on Middle Earth, since she had only stayed there for Thingol—she told Mablung to keep an eye on the Silmaril and to send word to Beren and Luthien, then vanished and returned to Valinor. Doriath was now completely unprotected, and the dwarves marched right in. There was a battle in which the dwarves won (Mablung was killed, among others), and in their victory they sacked and plundered Menegroth, taking the Silmaril home with them.

Luthien and Beren were at this time still living peacefully in Ossiriand. Their son Dior was grown up, and had married an elf lady from Doriath. They already had three kids—two sons and a daughter (Elwing), all of whom were still children. When word reached them of what had happened, Beren and Dior ran out and attacked the dwarves in revenge before they could reach Nargothrond. Beren personally killed the Lord of Nogrod, who with his dying breath cursed the Nauglamir even more. A few dwarves escaped, but they happened to run into Ents and were never heard from again.

Beren brought the Nauglamir back and Luthien wore it for a little while, though it was little consolation. Dior then left with his family to go rule Doriath. Luthien and Beren soon enough died in Ossiriand, and sent the Nauglamir back to Doriath, where Dior wore it.

However, word got ‘round that there was a Silmaril in Doriath, and the Oath of the Sons of Fëanor “was waked again from sleep.” No one was going to bother Luthien about it, but Dior is not his mother. The Sons of Fëanor sent to Dior and asked for the Silmaril back, but he said no. Celegorm in particular did not take this well, and persuaded his brothers to launch a surprise attack on Doriath that winter. This is considered the **Second Kinslaying**. Dior killed Celegorm but died himself, as did his wife. Curufin and Caranthir also died there. Worst of all, some of Celegorm’s servants kidnapped Dior’s sons and abandoned them in the woods to die of starvation and exposure. When Maedhros heard about this, he felt terrible and spent a long time combing the woods looking for the boys, but never found them. Even still, the Silmaril remained out of the Sons of Fëanor’s grasp—a small group of Sindar escaped with Princess Elwing and the Silmaril, taking refuge at the Mouths of Sirion at the sea far to the south.


	25. Tuor and the Fall of Gondolin

Tuor, son of Huor, grew up with the grey elves in Mithrim, spent a short stint in Hithlum enslaved by the Easterlings, snuck out, and eventually made his way to Nevrast by the sea where he found the armor and sword that Turgon had left there. Ulmo then appeared to Tuor directly, telling him to go to Gondolin and giving him a shadowy cloak to hide him from enemies.

At this time, the lone sailor elf washed up on the shore of Nevrast. After hearing that Ulmo had spoken directly to Tuor, this elf agreed to take Tuor to Gondolin. Tuor thus came to Turgon and told him from Ulmo that the time had come, and that if Turgon knew what was good for him, he’d abandon Gondolin, sail down the Sirion and head for the sea. Turgon thought long and hard about this, but Gondolin seemed so safe, and he’d gotten quite proud, so he didn’t end up leaving. He did, however, start worrying about treason, and sealed off Gondolin completely, ignoring the outside world altogether.

In the meantime, Tuor and Turgon’s daughter Idril fell in love, which brought Tuor all the hate that Maeglin could heap upon him, but Turgon had grown quite fond of Tuor and approved the marriage. They had a son, Eärendil Halfelven, and in general things were going very well for everyone except Maeglin. No one had any idea that Morgoth had a general idea of where Gondolin was, but it didn’t really matter because he couldn’t get in anyway what with the eagles keeping an eye on everything. Nevertheless, Idril had a bad feeling and built a secret escape route out of Gondolin just in case, making sure that Maeglin had no idea it existed.

Even though no one was supposed to ever leave Gondolin, Maeglin was actually in the habit of leaving every once in a while anyway to go mine for ore, which was his favorite hobby. On one of these outings, he was captured by orcs and dragged to Angband, where they tortured him into telling Morgoth how to get into Gondolin. Morgoth thought this was awesome, and promised that Maeglin would be lord of Gondolin and have “possession of” Idril after he won. This was good enough to get Maeglin to voluntarily sell out, making him the only elf to willingly work for Morgoth. He went back to Gondolin and said nothing.

When Eärendil was seven years old, Morgoth made his move, assaulting Gondolin with his full strength. The city crumpled (though there were some good stories out of it that for some reason aren’t described here,) and Turgon was killed. Tuor went to go rescue Idril, who had been kidnapped by Maeglin, and they fought near the walls. Tuor eventually was able to fling Maeglin off the cliff, and he bounced off the cliff face three times on the way down. Tuor and Idril were then able to lead whoever they could collect out through the secret exit.

They nearly made a clean getaway, but unfortunately there happened to be a Balrog around. Captain Glorfindel killed it in epic battle, but died himself in the process. Thus everyone made it, somewhat the worse for wear but safely, to the Mouths of Sirion, where they joined up with the Doriath refugees. Fingon’s son Gil-galad, living with Cirdan on the Isle of Balar, inherited High Kingship of the Noldor.

Morgoth thus figured he’d won for good. He didn’t give any damn about the Sons of Fëanor, considering that they’d never managed to do him any harm, and he never even thought about the Silmaril he’d lost.

In the meantime, Ulmo petitioned the Valar to go help out the elves already, but Manwë said no.

Tuor started getting old, and he always longed deeply for the sea. Eventually, he built a huge boat, and he and Idril got on it and sailed West. No one ever heard of them again, though the popular version of the story is that they lived happily in Valinor forever after.


	26. The Voyage of Eärendil and the War of Wrath

Eärendil grew up and was made lord of the people at the Mouths of Sirion, and he married Elwing Dior’s daughter. They had twin boys, Elrond and Elros.

Eärendil felt a permanent need to sail at all times, and worked with his friend Cirdan to build an awesome ship. In this ship he sailed west, hoping both to find his parents and maybe to get to Valinor. Elwing stayed home, missing him all the time. After a while, though, he started getting a terrible feeling, and sailed back to the Mouths of Sirion as fast as he could.

Because Elwing still had that Silmaril. Word came to Maedhros of the Silmaril’s location, but he tried to leave it be, still feeling absolutely terrible about what had happened in Doriath. Unfortunately, the Oath _would not let him_ and his brothers stop. He sent messengers to the Mouths of Sirion promising friendship but nevertheless demanding the Silmaril. Elwing and the people of Sirion refused.

The Sons of Fëanor then launched a surprise attack on the settlement and completely destroyed it. All of their own people either defected or were killed alongside Amrod and Amras, leaving only Maedhros and Maglor standing at the end of the day. Cirdan and Gil-galad sailed from the Isle of Balar to provide backup, but could not make it in time—barely anyone was alive when they got there, and those that were all returned with them to the Isle of Balar. Elrond and Elros were taken captive (though Maglor came to love them like they were his own kids), and Elwing—still wearing the Silmaril—jumped into the ocean.

Amazingly, however, she did not drown—Ulmo pulled her out of the water and turned her into a huge white bird. Carrying the Silmaril around her neck, she flew as fast as she could until she found Eärendil and passed out on the deck of his ship. Imagine Eärendil’s surprise when he woke up the next morning with his wife sleeping next to him. Eärendil finally became convinced that he needed to go to Valinor for good, set the Silmaril on the prow of the ship, and sailed West with Elwing.

Because they had a Silmaril, they were able to make it to Valinor without harm—had they sailed otherwise, they would not have made it. Both of them set foot on Valinor’s shores, but only Eärendil was summoned to an audience with the Valar. There he asked pardon for the remaining Noldor and asked for help for the remaining Elves and Men.

Ulmo and Mandos argued briefly about whether Eärendil counted as a Mortal Man and was even allowed to set foot in Valinor, but Manwë settled it by declaring that no harm would come to either Eärendil or Elwing, but that they would never be allowed to leave Valinor. He also declared that, as half-elves, they and their children would all need to choose whether to live as elves or die as Men. Eärendil identified as a Man and wanted to choose the mortal option, but Elwing wanted to be an elf, so he chose the same to stay with her.

Manwë sent his herald Eönwë to the shore, where he hallowed Eärendil’s ship and set it to sail with the Silmaril in the sky as the evening star. Elwing didn’t like it up there, though, and stayed behind in a white tower on the shoreline. There she learned to speak the languages of the birds, who gave her wings and taught her to fly. She thus flies up to see Eärendil in the mornings and evenings when he sails closest to Valinor.

Elves in Middle Earth took this brand-new, extra-bright star as a sign of hope. Even Maedhros and Maglor felt pretty good about it, even though they knew it was a Silmaril that they could never retrieve—everyone would thus be able to enjoy it, and up there it would surely be safe.

When Morgoth saw the Silmaril up in the sky, he was distinctly uncomfortable, but nevertheless had no inkling that anyone was going to come and make war on him. Indeed, he had just about figured that no one had the capacity to ever make open war on him again—the Noldor were almost completely wiped out, and the Valar had given no indication that they gave a damn what happened in Middle Earth anymore. Unbeknownst to him, however, Valinor was gearing for war. All of the Vanyar took part, and all of the Noldor still in Valinor, though the Teleri didn’t really want to, still sore over the Kinslaying thing—they only helped out so much as to man the ships, and refused to set foot on Middle Earth.

The ensuing battle is called the **War of Wrath**. Simply put, Morgoth lost. All the Balrogs were killed except a few who managed to hide. The orcs were defeated so soundly that they did not pose a threat again for at least an Age. The winged dragons were new and threatening, but Eärendil personally killed the greatest of these and most of the rest were polished off easily enough but for the few that fled. They completely dismantled Angband, and they caught Morgoth, tied him up, beat his iron crown into a collar around his neck, and took from him the Silmarils. The battle was so intense that the entire continent of Beleriand broke up in to pieces and was for the most part swallowed by the sea—only Ossiriand and the Blue Mountains remained standing.

Eönwë collected all the elves of Beleriand to leave Middle Earth (though a few opted out.) Maedhros and Maglor, however, were stuck. They _knew_ that their Oath would compel them to go after those Silmarils, whether or not they wanted to and even if they had to fight all of Valinor alone for them. They therefore sent a message to Eönwë asking him to give them the Silmarils. Eönwë, however, answered that due to all of the terrible things their Oath had compelled of them, they no longer had any right to the Silmarils, and must return to Valinor for judgement before anything could be done about it.

Maglor was willing to go along with this, figuring they’d done all that they could and perhaps in Valinor they might be forgiven, but Maedhros knew that nothing was going to make that Oath go away. If they went back to Valinor for judgement, they would inevitably bring about even worse calamities once they were there, maybe even making war in Valinor itself. There was nothing they could do about it. Manwë and Varda might deny the validity of the Oath, but Iluvatar was inaccessible, and they had sworn by Him. Maglor tried to talk Maedhros out of it, insisting that they were probably equally screwed either way, but it was no use. So that night, they snuck into Eönwë’s camp, killed the guards, and stole the Silmarils. The whole camp surrounded them, ready to kill them, and they held firm, ready to die, but Eönwë wouldn’t let them be killed.

Maedhros and Maglor thus ran away as far as they could go. They took a Silmaril each. These burned their hands and caused them unbearable pain. Maedhros realized that Eönwë had been right after all, and he wasn’t worthy of the Silmarils—overcome with despair and anguish and self-hatred, he threw himself into a nearby volcanic chasm, bringing the Silmaril with him. Maglor, unable to endure the pain of carrying the Silmaril, threw it into the sea, but was unable to stray far from it, and thus lingered at the shore, singing alone (possibly until the end of the world—it never says whether he ever died.)

Most of the elves got on boats and headed back to Valinor, all things forgiven. Most of the elves of Beleriand chose to live on Eressëa, not quite in Valinor, but were allowed to go if they ever might want to. The Doom of the Noldor was thus repealed. A few elves chose to stick around in Middle Earth, including Cirdan, Gil-galad, Galadriel and Celeborn, and Elrond, who chose to live as an elf, though his brother chose to be a mortal.

Morgoth was locked up in the Timeless Void beyond the Walls of the World, with a guard permanently set on those walls. However, his lies still exist in the hearts of Men and Elves and shall never be destroyed. You cannot kill an idea, and “ever and anon it sprouts anew, and will bear dark fruit even unto the latest days.”

THE END OF THE SILMARILLION


	27. AKALLABÊTH: The Downfall of Numenor

After the War of Wrath, a lot of the elves left for Valinor and Eressëa. The Valar wanted to do something nice for what was left of the Edain, though, since these had helped them so much. Eönwë granted them longer life and greater power and wisdom than other Men, and the Valar lifted up an island out of the ocean just east of Eressëa for them to live on. They gave it a million names, but for all intents and purposes it is called **Numenor**. The Men who lived there were thus afterward called Numenoreans or Dunedain.

Eärendil led the way there, and his son Elros (who had chosen to live and die as a Man) was made the first King of Numenor. He lived happily to the age 500, ruling for 410 years, and all subsequent Numenorean rulers trace their lineage back to him.

The Numenoreans had some nice cities, most busily a port on the west coast from which they received traders and visitors from Eressëa. Their capitol was at the foot of a huge mountain, and the top of that mountain they hallowed to Eru Iluvatar and used as their only temple. The entire country revolved around shipbuilding and maritime enterprises, and Numenoreans became the best sailors the world ever saw, sailing literally all over the world—except west. The One Big Rule was that they were never allowed to sail farther west than the sight of their own shores. Manwë wanted to keep them from getting too jealous of immortality, and sought to keep them in the mortal realms where they wouldn’t have to feel inferior. Manwë thought that having access to Valinor but being unable to go there would be too cruel a temptation for the Numenoreans.

Still, elves from Eressëa could easily visit Numenor, and they brought nice stuff, including a seedling of the White Tree like they had in Tirion, and everybody was pretty happy. Numenoreans sailed into Middle Earth and taught the Men there a bunch of stuff, and these Men revered them, and the Numenoreans always came home in the end. “Eastward they must sail, but ever west their hearts yearned.”

This westward longing became a problem after a while. Numenoreans lived to great ages, but they still had to die eventually. They were starting to resent this, and wanted to find a way out of it. They got to wondering why they weren’t allowed west to Valinor and Eressëa (called the Undying Lands.) Manwë sent a messenger to explain to the Numenoreans that the term ‘Undying Lands’ is a bit of a misnomer—they cannot grant immortality, it’s just that their people are all naturally immortal. If mortals were to turn up, they would eventually die anyway—in fact, they’d probably die even sooner than normal, “as moths in a light too strong and steadfast.” Death was originally supposed to be a gift from Iluvatar anyway, as it meant that Men would never have to get weary of the world and would get to be part of Iluvatar’s next project, whatever that was. The Valar and Elves therefore had just as much right to be jealous of Men as Men were of Elves.

The Numenoreans were not, however, convinced. The next couple kings were very proud and acquisitive, and they started exacting tribute from the Men of Middle Earth instead of giving them things. The king after that was the first one to live literally as long as he was capable, ”clinging to his life beyond the end of all joy…until he was witless and unmanned.” The next king saw the people dividing into factions—one, the **King’s Men** , were in the majority and believed that they had become too great to have to listen to all the Valar told them; the other, the **Faithful** , were still close friends of the elves and figured it was best to respect the Valar’s commands. Both factions were evermore afraid of death, however, and everyone wanted a way out. They started neglecting their temple, put more and more effort into the science of embalming, and started building colonies in Middle Earth and establishing lordship over the people there. The Faithful were substantially less hedonistic, though, and spent a lot of their time helping out Gil-galad and the elves in their efforts against Sauron.

Because Sauron was still around, even after the world was rid of Morgoth, and in the absence of any major powers in Middle Earth he grew very strong indeed. He had set up shop in Mordor, he had already forged his One Ring, and he hated the Numenoreans something serious. Among the Men he gave the Nine Rings to, three of these were “great lords of the Numenorean race.” He built up strength, especially once he had Ringwraiths to back him up, and started attacking Numenorean fortresses in Middle Earth.

Around the twentieth King of Numenor, the Faithful started to worry that they weren’t being properly represented, and come the twenty-third King they were being openly repressed. The King stopped tending the White Tree very carefully, forbade the speaking of Elvish, and started punishing anyone who welcomed any ship from Eressëa. Obviously, soon enough these stopped coming. The King also forcibly uprooted the Faithful from their power base on the west coast and moved them to the east coast around the harbor of Romenna, the better to keep an eye on them.

There was a tiny glimmer of hope for a minute there. The twenty-fourth King, Tar-Palantir, was surprisingly among the Faithful, and he tried to make things right. He tended the tree, warning that if harm came to it the line of Kings would come to an end, and he minded the temple again. Unfortunately, it was too little too late, and the factionalism grew ever deeper. Tar-Palantir had only a daughter, who was legally supposed to inherit the throne, but Tar-Palantir’s douche brother’s douchier son, Pharazon, took the throne anyway. He married Tar-Palantir’s daughter even though she was his first cousin and no one thought this was okay, and became king in his own right.

Ar-Pharazon was the proudest and mightiest of all the kings of Numenor. Before he was crowned, he had been a conquistador in Middle Earth, and “in the glory of his power, he brooded darkly, thinking of war.” This coincided with Sauron causing trouble, and Ar-Pharazon would have none of it. He considered Sauron a rival and a threat, and determined that he would force Sauron to declare fealty to him.

Sauron, at that time, could look as beautiful as he wanted to, and he was always extremely clever. He didn’t put up a fuss at all. Ar-Pharazon insisted that Sauron return to Numenor as his prisoner, and Sauron pretended that he didn’t want to but agreed. They should have realized that this was way too easy. Within three years, Sauron had talked his way into being Ar-Pharazon’s chief adviser, and soon convinced the king that the Valar had made the entire concept of Iluvatar up from scratch, and that the only real deity was Melkor (Morgoth by his original name.)

Things were not looking very good for the Faithful. One of their leaders was named Amandil, who was from a cadet branch of the royal family. He had been a good friend of the king’s once, but Sauron’s influence had kicked him out. He gathered up the few people he could trust, including his son Elendil and grandsons Isildur and Anarion, in Romenna on the east coast and prepared for the worst.

The worst was, of course, just beginning. The temple on the mountaintop was made completely off-limits under pain of death, and soon Sauron recommended that the king cut down the White Tree. The king wouldn’t at first go for this, since he still believed what Tar-Palantir had prophesized about the Tree’s connection to the line of kings, but Sauron was just so persuasive! Amandil was worried, and talked to his family about what he knew. No one told him to, but Elendil’s son Isildur snuck out that night in disguise and stole a fruit from the Tree, though he nearly died in the process. He got back to Romenna, where they planted the fruit in secret, and Isildur was magically healed the day the shoots started to sprout.

After this, of course, the king ordered that the Tree be chopped down, where they ceremonially burned it in the shiny new temple that Sauron had ordered built in the capitol. At that temple, Sauron installed himself as high priest and oversaw the institution of human sacrifice. They took their captives from among the Faithful, who had been arrested on trumped up (and occasionally real) treason charges, or from those taken in war in Middle Earth. It only got worse from there.

Ar-Pharazon was now getting old, and Sauron saw his chance. He told Ar-Pharazon that he was now so powerful he could do whatever the hell he wanted, no matter what the Valar said—so why _not_ sail west? Immortality was there, if only Ar-Pharazon would reach out and take it. Ar-Pharazon fell for it, hook line and sinker. He planned a great fleet to make war on Valinor, though he did not do this openly, and Amandil found out about it.

Amandil called his son Elendil to him and told him to gather up all the people he most trusted, get ships ready, and be prepared to leave Numenor at any time. Amandil himself planned to sail west alone, like Eärendil had done, to try to petition the Valar to help out. No one ever heard from Amandil again, but Elendil did as he was told.

Up until this point, Numenor had had supernaturally excellent weather, but this all started to go to hell in a handbasket. Storms of rain and hail became frequent, and sometimes massive, thunderhead clouds shaped like eagles blotted out the sun and spewed lightning. The last big warning sign was an earthquake, which made the mountain at the middle of Numenor start smoking.

Nevertheless, Ar-Pharazon went through with the plans. He had an armada of enough ships to look like a landmass, and he set out for Valinor. Just after he set foot on Valinor’s shores, however, the Valar gave Iluvatar the reins to the world, and Iluvatar tweaked _everything_. A giant chasm opened up in the middle of the ocean between Eressëa and Numenor, and the water poured into it and sucked all of the armada deep into the earth. Ar-Pharazon and all those who had gone to shore were “buried under falling hills; there it is said that they lie imprisoned in the Caves of the Forgotten, until the Last Battle and the Day of Doom.” Iluvatar completely removed the Undying Lands from Arda and made them entirely inaccessible from the outside, such that Men would never again be able to reach them. Meanwhile, it turned out that Numenor was founded on a dormant volcano, which began spewing fire. There was a massive earthquake as the island tilted and fell into the chasm, and finally an enormous tsunami rose up and swallowed Numenor off the face of Arda. No quarter was given to anyone who might have been innocent. The only survivors were Elendil and his followers, who had been rushed away on a gust of wind so strong that it destroyed their ships and wrecked them on the coasts of Middle Earth.

Sauron lived. He had only really expected the death of the Numenoreans, and sat laughing in the temple about how he couldn’t believe they’d actually bought all he’d said, when suddenly the world was ripped out from under him. He did not have his Ring on him at this time, and he had never been “of mortal flesh,” so no real harm was done to him, but he could never again appear beautiful. His spirit fled back to Mordor and he brooded there until he could again take form, wishing evil upon everything.

After this event, it became clear to those who tried to sail that the world had been turned spherical, when before it had actually been flat. Men tried to find Valinor, but could not reach it, instead finding only other lands much like their own. However, elves could still set sail from the west coast of Middle Earth and somehow reach Eressëa and Valinor, giving Men hope that there was still a way and begetting legends of sailors who found it only to die on Valinor’s shores.

THE END OF THE AKALLABETH


	28. THE RINGS OF POWER AND THE THIRD AGE: In which these tales come to their end

Returning for a moment to the aftermath of the War of Wrath, Sauron remained free after Morgoth was taken away. He acted like he was sorry for all he had done, and he well might have been, but Eönwë said that he was unable to forgive Sauron with his own authority, and that Sauron needed to come to Valinor for judgement. Sauron refused to take it that far and instead stayed hidden in Middle Earth, turning in time back to his Master’s work.

The world had been rearranged, and what was once Ossiriand was now seashore. They now called it Lindon, and most of the elves of Beleriand who had not left Middle Earth lived there with Gil-galad as their king and Elrond as backup. Cirdan established the Grey Havens up in the Gulf of Lhun, with a shipyards so that any elves who felt the need to leave for Valinor might do so from there. There was a general population shift all around Middle Earth, as Sindar elves from Ossiriand and Doriath relocated and founded kingdoms among the Sylvan (Nandor) elves far inland. The remaining Noldor generally all retreated to the Misty Mountains, establishing the country called Eregion along their western side. Eregion was next-door neighbors with the dwarves of Moria (then called Khazad-dum), and the two peoples became really great friends and often worked together. The singular best and brightest of the people here was Celebrimbor, son of Curufin and grandson of Fëanor, who had successfully managed to ditch the doom that seemed to pall the rest of his family.

Sauron had a very easy time turning Men to his cause, given that he was beautiful, brilliant, and extremely persuasive, but he really wanted to win over the elves, as these were powerful and thus more useful. He never went to Lindon, because Gil-galad and Elrond were having none of it, but elsewhere he traveled among the elves calling himself Annatar (The Lord of Gifts) and teaching them all kinds of useful things. The Noldor in Eregion were most eager to learn anything they could, and they became some of the greatest smiths this side of the Sea, though Sauron was guiding all their work.

The pièce de résistance of their efforts was the Rings of Power. They made some nineteen of these, and they all amplified the power of the wearer and gave them abilities beyond those of normal persons. However in secret, back home in Mordor, Sauron forged the One Ring To Rule Them All. He put a lot of his own personal power and will into that Ring, because the other Rings were so powerful on their own that a great deal more power was needed to usurp and take control of them. If the One Ring was in any way destroyed, all other Rings would cease to work. “And while he wore the One Ring he could perceive all the things that were done by means of the lesser rings, and he could see and govern the very thoughts of those that wore them.”

The instant Sauron put on that One Ring, the elves knew he was up to no good and pulled the rings off, however subtle Sauron had tried to be. This made him angry, and he demanded that they give the rings to him, since he had helped them to make them in the first place. The elves ran away, though, and managed to hide the three best rings where Sauron could never find them. These three were even more powerful than all the others, because they could also “ward off the decays of time and postpone the weariness of the world.” Celebrimbor had made these three all by himself, with no help from Sauron at all, though they were still subject to the rule of the One. Sauron then declared war on the elves and completely destroyed Eregion. Right around this time, Elrond founded Rivendell as a refuge and stronghold against Sauron.

In the meantime, Sauron collected the rest of the Rings and passed them around in the hope of dominating other peoples. “And all those rings that he governed he perverted, the more easily since he had a part in their making, and they were accursed, and they betrayed in the end all those that used them.” He gave seven to the dwarves, but this didn’t end up being a very profitable use of his time. It’s actually impossible for anyone but dwarves to rule over dwarves, and they were fundamentally designed by Aulë in the first place to resist evil. They only ever used their Rings to acquire wealth, though the Rings did exacerbate the dwarves’ preexisting tendencies toward gold fever and anger management issues. In the end, though, the massive hoards of gold brought in dragons, which ended up working out in Sauron’s favor. A few Rings were lost to dragonfire, a few Sauron ended up getting back. Men, on the other hand, got Nine Rings, and each of their recipients used these Rings to become “mighty in their day, kings, sorcerers, and warriors of old.” The Rings prolonged their life and yet made life miserable; they could make themselves invisible if they chose to, “and they could see things in worlds invisible to mortal men; but too often they beheld only the phantoms and delusions of Sauron. And one by one, sooner or later, according to their native strength and to the good or evil of their wills in the beginning, they fell under the thralldom of the One.”

Sauron was thus in a position to do whatever he felt like, and though he remained visibly beautiful, he “ruled rather by force and fear.” He pulled all evil things from Morgoth’s era back together, and the orc population rebounded in full. During this time, a lot of elves ran away over the seas, and many more were killed. Sauron had free reign basically anywhere except Lindon, where Gil-galad was still strong enough to keep him well out. Then, however, Sauron was summoned to Numenor, as already discussed. While he was gone, Gil-galad took the opportunity take leadership over most of Middle Earth, even across the Misty Mountains up to Mirkwood (then called Greenwood the Great) and build up the elves’ strength again. Sauron was not cool with this.

Elendil and his sons Isildur and Anarion were in charge of the Numenoreans that had escaped the Drowning. Elendil washed up in Lindon, where he befriended Gil-galad. He ended up heading northward and inland, building a kingdom called Arnor (right around, maybe just north of where the Shire is.) Isildur and Anarion ended up much farther south, guiding their ships up the Anduin River to found the kingdom of Gondor. They had managed to rescue from Numenor the seven Palantiri (Seeing Stones), which they split up around their lands to keep in contact with each other, as well as the White Tree, which they planted in Gondor.

Sauron came back to his Ring in Mordor and plotted war against elves and Men, gathering anyone who would harken to him, which included some Numenorean colonists from the south and east. He pushed hard against Gondor, which seemed in danger of crumpling. Elendil and Gil-galad thus got together what was later called **the Last Alliance of Men and Elves**. “All living things were divided in that day, and some of every kind, even of beasts and birds, were found in either host, save the elves only. They alone were undivided and followed Gil-galad.” [Does this imply that there were orcs on our side?] Very few dwarves fought at all, but those of Moria fought against Sauron. They were winning, and marched straight into Mordor, when Sauron personally entered the fray. He killed both Gil-galad and Elendil personally, but Isildur used the broken hilt of his father’s sword to cut off the One Ring and win the war.

Thus began the Third Age, and things were looking good. Isildur took over as king of Arnor and Sauron’s forces all dispersed, but not all was well. For starters, Isildur didn’t get rid of that Ring, claiming it as weregild for the loss of his father and brother, and it eventually betrayed him to his death and was lost in the Anduin. Elves and Men stopped hanging out and grew estranged. Sauron’s armies were not completely destroyed. There were not enough Numenoreans left to maintain the northern kingdom of Arnor, which crumbled into petty kingdoms and eventually completely disappeared, though Numenoreans continued to wander the north and though the line of the king remained unbroken. Gondor eventually ran out of kings, leading to a long line of ruling stewards. Neglect of the borders allowed Mordor to regain some strength—the Nazghul conquered the Gondorian city of Minas Ithil, renaming it Minas Morgul, Osgiliath deteriorated, and the capitol was moved to Minas Anor (renamed Minas Tirith.) Minas Tirith stood strong, however, and the institutions of the Numenoreans were lasting and strong enough to deter the Nazghul from ever crossing the River Anduin. Also, the Rohirrim moved in next door, which helped.

The center of elvish culture was at Rivendell, and to there a large part of the remaining elves retreated. Elrond preserved the knowledge of elder days, looked after the “weary and oppressed,” and always was available to offer advice if it was needed. The Heirs of Isildur usually grew up there and retired to there, both the better to teach the line of kings and because they were descended from Elrond’s brother. Elves also remained at the Havens. No one ‘officially’ knew where the Three Elven Rings were, but by the end of the Third Age everyone was pretty sure that Elrond had one and Galadriel had one (“she was the mightiest and fairest of all the Elves that remained in Middle Earth.”) It was the third that was giving people trouble.

The Third Age in general was a time of transition. The elves were on the way out but nowhere near entirely gone; strange and unusual creatures still walked the earth, though grew rarer; dwarves were often forced to relocate but were still going strong; Men were on the rise. Then Sauron turned up in Mirkwood, poisoning what had once been called Greenwood the Great from the fortress of Dol Guldur in the south. For a long time, though, no one knew it was Sauron.

Almost at exactly this time, the **Istari** (Wizards) turned up in the west of Middle Earth. They had come from across the Sea, though only Cirdan knew that (and he only saw fit to tell Elrond and Galadriel.) They were sent by the Valar to help the people of Middle Earth stand up to Sauron. Radagast the Brown worked best with animals rather than people; Saruman tended to work most closely with Men; and Gandalf spent most of his time with the Elves. Gandalf was the one who first thought that maybe the shadow in Mirkwood was Sauron, and as this shadow got stronger, the Wise got together to form what was called the White Council. Saruman stalled the Council for as long as he could, hoping even then to find the One Ring himself, but eventually they got together to clean out Dol Guldur. This happened at the same time as the events of _The Hobbit_ , and is where Gandalf was all those times when he should have been keeping an eye on the Company of Thorin Oakenshield.

In all this time, through all the history of the world, no one ever expected Hobbits. Even the people who knew that they existed never paid them any mind, nor factored them into any of their plans. Gandalf was probably the only person who ever even noticed them. Thus did the Enemy’s plans fail. [What follows is a brief summary of LOTR, which I feel no need to describe.]

Only at the very end of the Third Age, as some of the last few Elves made to leave Middle Earth, was it made clear that Gandalf had been the one keeping the third Elven Ring. It had been Cirdan’s, but Cirdan figured Gandalf would make better use of it. With the One Ring gone, the power of the Three Rings was ended, and the elves quickly grew weary of Middle Earth. Thus did all of the Noldor finally return to Valinor, followed in the end by the keepers of the Three Elven Rings. Thus the Third Age ended, “and an end was come for the Eldar of story and song.”

THE END


End file.
